Goddess Denial
by Imaginos1892
Summary: What If: Mara put a mind-altering potion in the tea, and Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld drank it? Urd was spared for a rather embarrassing reason, and now she has to save them. Inspired by HotelKatz's What-If and Winter Tales stories. We bounced a few ideas around, and this is what came out of it. My thanks to Ceroxon for checking Peorth's French, and correcting where necessary.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Urd groaned, and cracked one violet eye open. It was definitely morning, whether she was ready for it or not. She lay half-on, half-off her futon, more-or-less covered by a sheet and blanket, with an empty sake bottle resting against her left ear. Not very good sake, at that, as she recalled dimly. Bottom-shelf booze always left her feeling like hammered dogshit.

She grunted, and dragged herself to a sitting position. Her head seemed to make about two spins and then drift to a stop. Her stomach stayed where it belonged, and felt content to remain there. Good enough.

She yawned and stretched. A mortal would have experienced a few cracks and pops from her abused joints, but Urd's dual unearthly heritage at least spared her that much. Her inner ear caught a small, grouchy protest from World Of Elegance; cheap hooch was tough on both of them, for all that her angel didn't actually drink the stuff. _Sorry, that was what I had_, she sent contritely.

Fifteen minutes later she stood in front of her mirror, making final adjustments. Few people realized how much work it took to get her attire just _so_, displaying the perfect degree of salacious allure, without quite crossing a line she placed farther out than most. Belldandy accepted, but didn't understand. Maybe, Peorth did.

She didn't smell anything cooking when she slid her door open, so it must be long after breakfast, but well before lunch. She'd have to scrounge something up. She walked towards the kitchen, but what she saw through the tea-room door stopped her cold.

Belldandy and Keiichi huddled together, clinging to each other. Skuld glared at them across the table, but was plainly distressed herself. The tea service, cups, and saucers sat forgotten between them.

Belldandy saw her in the doorway. "Urd?" she said in a small, quavering voice, "What's going on?"

Urd considered the unusual question, but the only answer she could think of was, "You're having tea, and I'm hung over. Is there anything to eat?"

The next question was even more bizarre. "Why did I believe I was a Goddess?"

"Uhhh, Bell…" She was sure she wasn't hearing things; that her sister _had_ just asked that question. "I'm really not in any condition for riddles right now. Can't we play this later?"

Whatever was going on, she was persistent. "And I thought _you_ were a, a…"

"Half-Goddess, half-demon?" Urd finished for her. "Just like I've been for the last few thousand years?"

"No, no, nooo…" The brown-haired woman seemed to shrink into herself, clutching Keiichi tighter and shaking her head in denial. "Not you too…"

Failing to get anything resembling sense from Belldandy, she turned to the most likely suspect. "Awright, pipsqueak, have you been playing Mad Scientist on our sister? What's it take to get through to you? Morisato made a wish, Bell granted it, they're both happy, and you can't interfere. Nor should you."

"There's no such thing as a wish," the youngest Norn said sullenly. "Not like that." She resumed glaring across the table. "And you get away from my Big Sis, you pervert!"

Keiichi looked nervous, but just shook his head, holding on to Belldandy.

Skuld reached into her blouse. "Skuld Bo—" She froze, staring at the black ball she'd pulled out, with loops of wire all over it. "What the—" She looked down her blouse. "How did that—"

"You mean, since you'd have a hard time hiding anything bigger than a peanut in there?" Urd inquired sweetly.

The little Goddess screeched with rage and flung the Skuld Bomb at her big sister's head.

Urd's right hand snapped up. "Urd Bolt!" Bolt hit Bomb in midair with a thunderous **KABOOM** that threatened to split her skull open.

Skuld cowered away from the blast and smoke. Keiichi and Belldandy wailed and clung tighter to each other. Urd held her pounding head together with both hands.

"Do that again, brat, and I'll Urd-Bolt _you!_" she growled. "We've got enough problems without you blowing up the house. Again." _And my poor aching head_, she added to herself.

She needn't have bothered with the warning; all three of them were staring at her in horror.

"It's still happening to us," Keiichi said in despair.

"We'll have to do it," Belldandy said hollowly. "Call a mental hospital, and have ourselves committed. We're still seeing the hallucinations, and hearing them, too."

"What are you talking about? It was just a Skuld Bomb. I shot it down. Happens — well, not every day, but pretty often. Never seemed to bother you before."

"It's okay, Urd," she said reassuringly. "We know. You don't have to humor us any more. We know we've been…unwell, but we're ready to get better now."

Her patience was wearing thin. "Belldandy Tyrsdottir, what in the Nine Realms are you going on about? You've been perfectly well up until a few minutes ago. _Now_ you're not making any sense."

"The doctors can help us, can't they, Onee-chan?" Skuld asked plaintively. "We can get better, right?"

Urd turned to her, bewildered. "I don't know what you think is wrong, but you know as well as I do that mortal doctors can't do a thing for any of us, and Keiichi's been around us long enough they probably wouldn't do him much good, either."

"Stop _saying_ those things, you're just making it worse!" Skuld wailed.

"Oh, Urd, are you having the same delusions we did?" Belldandy asked anxiously. "I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Of course, we want you to get well, too."

Urd started to shake her head, then thought better of it. "Holy Bell, can you try to talk some sense into her? I'm getting nowhere."

Belldandy twisted her lips sourly. "Why are you pretending to talk to Holy Bell? I know she's not real, just a figment of my imagination. A…an imaginary friend."

"Imaginary friend? She's your _angel_, Belldandy! The other part of your _soul!_ Like Elegance is mine. Look!" _World Of Elegance, come forth!_

Urd felt the stirring in her soul, felt the great soaring wings extending from her back, and in seconds a winged woman, nearly as tall as Urd herself, stood beside her. One wing white, one black, her body decorated with ornate tattoo-like patterns, a blue eye, the other eye red, with the vertical pupil of a cat — or a venomous snake — and topped with half-black-half-white hair. Beautiful, and a little intimidating if you weren't used to her. They both looked down on the three.

Skuld screamed, Belldandy wailed and cringed back, and Keiichi turned and buried his face in her bosom.

"What's _wrong_ with you all?" Urd demanded. "You _know_ Elegance! Your angels know her, too!"

None of the three could form words. Skuld gibbered, Belldandy made little whimpering sounds, and Keiichi didn't even try.

"Why are you acting like that? You know she won't hurt you. She's helped us all, many times. She's our _friend_, a good one."

Skuld shook her head in denial. Belldandy shut her eyes and hugged Keiichi's head to her chest.

Urd sighed, and turned to her angel. _This is just making them worse. I think you'd better go back._

World Of Elegance nodded solemnly, and sent a sense of agreement. The imposing figure seemed to shrink, and fade, and folded back into her host's body. In a few seconds she was gone.

"Okay, okay, she's gone," Urd told them irritably. "You can stop carrying on now." Ordinarily, she would have found Belldandy and Keiichi's antics supremely entertaining — she had _never_ seen him deliberately plunge his face into her cleavage before — but in the present circumstances it was just a distraction.

Skuld glanced around the room fearfully, as if she might find World Of Elegance still lurking in some corner. Belldandy opened her eyes and checked the room, too. Keiichi sat up beside her — just a bit reluctantly, perhaps? — looked around, and they leaned against each other. None of them mentioned what had just happened, as if they wanted to forget as quickly as possible.

_Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet are quite upset_, World Of Elegance informed her. _Belldandy and Skuld will not listen to them, and become highly agitated about 'hearing voices' whenever they try communing with their hosts. They do not know what to do._

_Neither do I_, Urd admitted. _Do they have any idea what's going on?_

_No._

_Can they at least tell you exactly what happened, before I got here?_

Urd sensed her angel 'talking' with the others for some time.

_Nothing was wrong through breakfast, and their normal daily routine. This…aberration began during their morning tea._

"Tea, huh?" _Thank you, Elegance. Thank Bell and Scarlet, too._

She made her way to the table and picked up Skuld's neglected teacup. "Lemme borrow this for a minute, okay?" She squinted at it, but saw only a teacup, reflecting Belldandy's impeccable taste, with a small puddle of greenish tea in the bottom.

"Urd? What are you doing?" Belldandy asked uneasily.

"Investigating." Urd gathered her magic, concentrated all her senses, and sniffed the dregs of Skuld's tea cautiously. It smelled like tea, with honey, and a hint of magic, but underneath there was just the barest whiff of a half-familiar acrid scent, and a faint trace of demonic energy. Whatever it was, it had been carefully concocted to blend into the tea, and escape the perceptions of a celestial being. Belldandy couldn't have detected it without a great deal of effort. Her own demon half gave her an advantage, but she still would not have noticed it if she hadn't been trying very hard.

"You've been dosed with a potion, of demonic origin," she announced. "I'm sure I can make a potion to counteract the effects, but it will take time."

All three of them raised a clamor, protesting that there were no such things as potions and magic and demons and…

Urd rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Fine. You've been drugged. I'm going to analyze the drug, and make an antidote. It will probably take a day or two, and in the meantime I want you all to stay on the temple grounds. Don't wander off and get into even more trouble. And _don't_ call any shrinks!"

They all regarded her as if she were raving. She sighed. "Belldandy, will you show me the tea you used? I need a raw sample of the po— the drug."

The middle Norn hesitated, then unwound herself from Keiichi, kissed him, and led Urd into the kitchen. She opened a cupboard and took out a small bamboo box. "This one. We haven't had this in a while, and I wanted to…" She seemed to lose track of what she was saying.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Why don't you go back and keep Skuld and Keiichi company? I think they need you right now."

Belldandy nodded, and headed back to the tea-room.

"And don't drink any more of that tea!" Urd called after her. "Don't drink _any_ tea until I've checked it. This might not be the only box that's been…drugged."

She stopped for a moment, nodded, and continued on through the door. She appeared to have a lot on her mind. Like, losing it.

Urd focused on the box. The smell was stronger, and even more familiar. The demonic energy was more pronounced, too, though still too low to register on the senses of an unwary celestial. She peered into the cupboard, and noted the tiny signs of an intrusion, unlikely to be noticed by anyone not already suspicious. The clues were there, but only if she looked for them.

She turned to leave, then stopped at the sink and drank a large glass of water, and most of another one. Time to start flushing that rotgut sake out of her system.

She carried the box of tainted tea towards her room, walked past the phone in the hallway…and stopped. _Dammit. I **have** to call. Demonic activity on Midgard, interference with a wish, Belldandy and Skuld…incapacitated… At least they can't blame this on me! It's not my fault this time! If I had been there, I'd be just another casualty; this is one fiendishly well-concealed potion. It's a **good** thing I was sleeping off a bender!_

Reluctantly she turned back and picked up the old-fashioned handset. Keiichi was a sweetheart, and as Norn of the Past she appreciated his nostalgic tendencies. She set down the tea-box and reached for the keypad — he wasn't nostalgic enough to be keeping some poor rotary-dial phone from its eternal rest — and stopped again. Which department should she call?

Almost all her business was with Yggdrasil Administration, or the Programming department, but neither one was appropriate for this situation. The Goddess Help Line? It was about Belldandy, and a wish, but only in part. The Valkyries, because a demon was involved?

She was procrastinating. There was only one answer, she admitted to herself with a long half-sigh, half-groan. Belldandy. And Skuld. The Almighty's own daughters. He would want her to call, immediately. He would soon find out if she didn't, and then she'd _really_ be in trouble. _It's really, really not my fault!_ she told herself as she grudgingly picked out the long sequence that would only function for a very few entities in the entire cosmos. The phone burred at her ear once, and clicked.

**"IT IS I."**

"Daddy!" she caroled with false cheer.

**"URD. MY DEAR DAUGHTER. WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO THIS TIME?"**

"It's not my fault! I didn't do anything! It's just—" She clamped down mercilessly on the reflexive excuses and forced herself to get to the point. "A demonic potion was put in the tea. Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld drank it. Their minds have been affected. They don't believe in magic, gods or angels. They think they've gone bonkers."

The silence from the other end was agonizing.

**"THAT IS A SERIOUS SITUATION. I WILL TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION. THANK YOU FOR INFORMING ME SO QUICKLY. YOU MADE THE RIGHT CALL."**

That last comment might have been just the least bit Tongue-in-Cheek.

"I have the tea right here. I plan to analyze the potion and work on an antidote," she said hopefully.

**"VERY GOOD. KEEP ME INFORMED."**

"I will…Father."

"Urd…" The great Voice was quiet now, almost humble. "I am pleased, my daughter. Very pleased. Take care of your sisters, and let me know if you need anything, or any kind of help. I will literally move Heaven and Earth, for all of you. And…you take care, too. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," she echoed. The phone clicked again. _That was…unexpected_, she thought as she replaced the handset. She reached for the tea-box, and stopped yet again. She would be completely occupied for some time, and those three just might do something crazy behind her back. Like calling the nuthouse, or going to one.

She started by casting a spell on the phone to make it work only for her, and alert her if any of them tried to use it. She cast another spell on the temple grounds, to prevent them from leaving. Belldandy could break both spells easily, Skuld…not so easily; but they'd have to use magic. In their current condition, that was most unlikely. If they did, she would know about it instantly. She picked up the tea-box and resumed the trip to her room.

_Elegance, dear, would you ask Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet to keep an eye on those three? Let you know if they do anything weird…er?_

_They are still talking to me. They are worried, and distressed, and I am trying to help. They will keep me informed._

_Good. Do your best to help them, and keep them calm. I have a potion to figure out._

Urd slid the door shut, sat at her workbench, and set the tea-box aside. There was something she needed to do first. She always kept ample stocks of all the ingredients, and had a great deal of practice, so it took only a few minutes to whip up her standard hangover potion. She downed it, making a face — **_why_** did every hangover cure in existence have to taste like a distilled hangover itself? — put everything away and brought the tea-box to center stage.

Like most potions, this one had two components: the ingredients, and the magical energy infusing it, demonic in this case. Both seemed familiar, but she would have to make absolutely certain of her identification, and nail down all the details. It would take time, but she wasn't about to rush, and miss something. She thought she recognized a couple of the ingredients from her childhood in Niflheim…

She made one trip back to the tea-room, to collect samples of the remaining tea. All three of her unwilling patients regarded her suspiciously, as if expecting her to do…_something_ peculiar. Again. She assured them that she was making progress identifying the…_drug_…that had been used on them, and that they should try to relax and not worry. She even told Skuld that the TV was all hers, so go ahead and watch anything she wanted.

They all kept wary eyes on her until she left the room.

Half an hour later, Urd looked up from her work as she felt a familiar tingle of energy. She set down a beaker, slid her door open, walked down the hall, out the back door, and looked up.

Traceries of light burned across the sky, forming an intricate multicolored construct of circles, lines and runes. White light flared in the temple courtyard, then it and the Gate overhead faded away, having delivered four Goddesses in blue-trimmed white uniforms. They stood in a square formation, alertly facing outward, weapons in hand, spaced just the right distance apart.

The Valkyries had arrived.

The nearest one regarded the house, and the elder Norn, with a stern expression, holding her battle-axe at the ready. On her forehead was a triangle of three dots, a darker blue than her hair, and larger blue circles marked her cheekbones.

Urd smiled, relieved. "Lind. Of course they'd send you."

The Valkyries seemed to relax, just the tiniest bit. "Urd. What is the situation?" Lind asked briskly.

"We're not under attack," the Norn assured them. "I've put up a light barrier, mostly to keep Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld from leaving the temple grounds. They're in the tea-room, still kind of in shock."

Lind nodded, then forced herself to ask, "What is their…status? We weren't told much."

"They drank a demonic potion. From what I can determine, it prevents them from accepting any knowledge pertaining to the higher realms."

"How was this _potion_ introduced?" the Valkyrie asked suspiciously.

Urd bristled at the implication, but answered levelly, "A rat has been in the cupboard where Belldandy keeps her tea. I'm pretty sure it was one of Mara's rat minions. No matter how much she changes them, they're still rats. They leave ratty traces wherever they go."

"Oh. Mara," Lind said, satisfied with the explanation. She relaxed more, and grounded her battle-axe.

"Mara," Urd agreed. "I'm still analyzing the potion, and then I'll have to formulate a counter-potion. Should take a day or two. After that…" Her expression changed, and there was no missing her half-demonic nature now. "I'll have to think up some suitable way to express my opinion of this little _incident_."

"Will they be all right until then?" Lind asked, concerned.

Urd nodded. "Physically, magically, they all seem to be fine. They're just completely convinced that everything they know about magic, gods, angels, demons and spirits is a delusion."

"Can't you just show them that magic is real, and they're Goddesses? They'd have to believe it, wouldn't they?"

"I've tried. Of course I tried." Urd ran one hand through her long silver hair in consternation. "Any evidence you show them just makes them more certain they're loony. Try not to use any magic in front of them, and for Heaven's sake don't call forth your angels in their presence. That _really_ freaks them out."

Lind gave her a kind of a funny look.

"No, it's _not_ because Elegance is…Elegance," Urd insisted. "They'd react the same way to _any_ angel. Even their own."

Lind nodded grudging acceptance, then hefted her battle-axe and turned to her squad. "Gunnr. Jadwel. Kara. Set a perimeter, secure the temple grounds, and lay tripwire spells out half a league. I'll take second watch, standard four-hour schedule. Inform your backup of anything suspicious _before_ you investigate. Mara's not much of a threat, but Hild sometimes works with her. Take no chances."

They all acknowledged her orders crisply, and set off in three directions. Lind turned back to Urd. "Will you take down your barrier? We're putting up a much stronger one."

"Of course. I have other uses for the energy." She unbound her containment spell. Now it wouldn't complicate the Valkyries casting their own barrier spells. With four of them present, and a few hours to strengthen it, they could put up something that would hold off even Hild for a while. "Do you want me to do anything else? If not, I need to get back to analyzing that potion."

"No, go ahead. That's your first priority. We'll stand guard over all of you." She smiled ironically. "It's what we do."

"Thanks, Lind. Belldandy and Skuld are completely defenseless right now, and I'll be too busy." She started to turn, then stopped. "Could you try keeping them company, a little? Try to calm them down? They're going through a lot."

"I'll…try," she said uncertainly. Lind wasn't the most socially adept person, even among the Valkyries, but she was Belldandy's friend. That might be enough.

"Thanks again." This time she did enter the house. She stopped at the bathroom; all that water and the hangover potion were literally flushing the sake out of her. She returned to her room, slid the door shut, cast a minor sound-damping spell and got back to work.

Two hours later she had all the ingredients identified, and the demonic essence confirmed as Mara's. That was the easy part. Any competent herbalist could do as much, and anyone who'd ever sensed Mara's energy. Next came the part that separated the true potion masters from the rest — working out how the ingredients were combined, and what spells went into them.

Lunch should come first, though. She didn't _have_ to eat, but her three-dimensional shell had a stomach, and leaving it empty was a distraction she didn't need. Besides, it would do her good to relax for a short time before diving into the most complex part of her task.

Her timing couldn't be better. Lunch was almost ready. Demonic potions, Skuld Bombs, delusions that she was having delusions, nothing could keep Belldandy from the joy she got out of making a tasty meal. Urd even got a brave smile from her sister as she tried to pretend that everything was normal.

Lunch was an awkward affair. Belldandy and Keiichi sat much closer together than usual, and after the incident with the Skuld Bomb their youngest sister was afraid to do more than glare and mutter. Belldandy was also a little miffed because Urd had insisted on checking each dish for potions — well, _drugs_, of course — before approving them to be served. Fortunately, she hadn't found any. Mara appeared to have only corrupted the one box of tea. It would seem the potion was specifically formulated for that one type of tea.

All three of them continued to be uncomfortable in her presence, fearing, perhaps, that they would experience more 'hallucinations'. None of the Valkyries joined them; they were on duty, and their standing orders prohibited taking food from unsecured sources. They had MRE's — not called that, of course, but she had seen enough military-surplus stuff to be certain that they were, indeed, MRE's.

At least the meal was as good as ever. She had long suspected that Belldandy and Holy Bell put a little magic into everything, but not believing in it didn't seem to stop them. It must be something they did without thinking, or even realizing they were doing it.

Urd tried to reassure everyone that she was making good progress, and still expected to provide them an antidote in a day or two. They seemed…nervously hopeful about it. She offered to help clean up, and got rather hasty, strained assurances that it wasn't necessary. She returned to her private laboratory, more determined than ever to put an end to this nonsense before they drove _her_ batshit crazy.

She made steady progress until early afternoon, when there was an unwelcome knock on her door.

"What is it?" She couldn't keep the vexation out of her voice. Well, okay, she hadn't tried very hard.

The door opened, and Lind stepped half-way into the room, with news even more unwelcome.

"Belldandy's gone."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Urd finished scrying around the temple grounds, but there was no sign, or any lingering trace, of her middle sister's presence.

"It looks like she just walked out," Lind summarized, looking guilty and ashamed. "Kara was on watch, but we think Belldandy slipped out when her rounds took her behind the temple. She's been a little…antsy around us, so we've been giving her some space. We thought she was in her room, or…Morisato-san's."

Urd turned her thoughts inward. _Elegance? I thought Holy Bell was going to warn you if Belldandy did something crazy. Crazier._

_Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet fell into a deep sleep some time ago_, World Of Elegance told her regretfully. _Being rejected by their own hosts leaves them much weakened. As you must recall._

_Oh_. Urd felt a pang of guilt at the reminder. _Can't you reach her? Wake her up? At least find out where she is, where Belldandy is?_

_No. I might force her to wake if she and her host were right here, but they are not. I regret that I can be of no help finding Belldandy._

_Damn_. She added hastily, _I'm not disappointed with **you**, just frustrated at the situation. I hoped you could help_. She felt compelled to go on, _And, I'm still sorry for the way I treated you, for so long. Can you forgive me?_

_I **have** forgiven you. That does not mean I do not remember._

_But, we're good?_

_We are good. Always._

Urd shook her head gloomily. "Elegance can't help. Holy Bell's out of it, because Belldandy is rejecting her. Noble Scarlet's in the same state. For Heaven's sake, keep an eye on Skuld!"

"We've reconstructed our barrier so it stops everything, instead of selectively excluding demons, and set up an additional warding spell inside it, to alert us if they approach it," the Valkyrie assured her. "Of course, that's locking the stable door after Sleipnir's been taken out for a joyride."

Urd sighed heavily. "It wasn't a joyride, and it was almost four thousand years ago. What's it going to take before you all give it a rest?"

"Another four thousand years?"

Urd glowered at the Valkyrie, who returned her gaze with a perfectly bland look, lacking any expression whatsoever.

_They lie. Lind did not have her sense of humor surgically removed. It's still there, just dried and salted._

Time for a change of subject. "Have you got any leads?"

"Not…as such. We asked Morisato-san where she'd go, and he gave us a number of possibilities. Kara and Jadwel are checking them out, and the roads in between."

"Well, that's something, I guess." _I thought this day couldn't possibly get any worse, and now we've gone and mislaid a Goddess! What **else** could go wrong?_

Fate, or the Universe, wasted no time delivering her punishment. She had barely completed the thought when there came a bellow from the temple's gateway.

**"MO-RI-SA-TO!"**

They felt Gunnr open the barrier. A huge gorilla of a mortal, practically bursting out of his T-shirt, stumped up the path, accompanied by an even taller, skinny one with spiky blond hair and a long black coat. Urd groaned, but it was much too late to wish that Tamiya and Otaki weren't there, or that they would go away.

"Hey, Miss Urd," the giant rumbled, less deafening now. Like an earthquake, instead of thunder. "Is Morisato here? Tell 'im we needs 'im for sumpthin'."

"I'm sure he'll be right out," the Norn assured him. "No one could have missed your entrance."

"Thanks," said Otaki, grinning.

Lind turned from the outlandish pair back to Urd. "Should we let him go? We're already missing one."

"Actually, Keiichi should be all right," she said thoughtfully. "The only thing this has affected is his attitude. There aren't any…complicating factors. And, getting him out of the house might make Skuld a little less difficult. She seems to be taking her anxiety out on him."

Lind considered her words, then nodded.

"You can stick a tracer spell on him, just to be sure," Urd murmured for Lind's ears alone. The Valkyrie nodded again.

Less than a minute later Keiichi stepped out the front door. Lind did something with her fingers, muttered a few words, and a complex intertwined pattern glowed on the back of his neck for a few seconds.

"**MORISATO!** Da Motor Club needs ya! Answer da call, as honor demands. Our ride awaits!" Tamiya gestured out the gate, where the Motor Club's three-wheeled…vehicle was pulled just off the road. "You gets ta ride in da back!"

That would be a tight fit; most of the cargo space was taken up by the hulk of something the duo must have scrounged up somewhere. Still, it would beat being sandwiched between them in the cab. He looked a question at Urd.

"Go ahead," she said reassuringly. "I'm sure they need the help, and there's not much you can do here. We'll see you when you get back."

Tamiya was already clumping towards the gate. Otaki jerked his head in that direction, setting the spark plugs dangling from his ears to swinging. "Move it, Keiichi! Time's a-wastin'!"

He started walking. "Okay, okay." He glanced aside. "When Belldandy gets back…"

"We'll tell her where you've gone," Urd assured him.

A minute later the suspension complained, the engine wailed, the wheels spun, and the three took off for Nekomi.

Lind faced Urd. "What else—"

"**_Don't_** say it!" she snapped. "I only _thought_ it, and…" she looked around nervously, but no new disaster sprang out at them. "Let's…get back to work. We need to get this all taken care of, _before_ anything—" Now she cut herself off.

Lind nodded her understanding. "Let's pray she's only gone shopping, and Kara or Jadwel finds her soon."

"Let us pray," Urd murmured in agreement, turned and headed back to the house.

* * *

Belldandy walked along a Nekomi sidewalk, feeling a little confused, and lost. Her whole past seemed like a bad dream, filled with impossible things she had believed completely. Nothing about it made sense except — Keiichi. In a life suddenly gone off the rails only Keiichi, and their love, made sense. She clung desperately to her one certainty.

It troubled her, that she couldn't remember how she and Keiichi had met. She couldn't _really_ have popped out of a mirror in his old dorm room, even though that was how they both remembered it. Why hadn't she understood what was happening when they got thrown out, or the events that led to them settling at a run-down temple compound? It was almost like she _was_ from another world… No! That was another fantasy!

She wasn't even sure why she'd left the house. 'Shopping' was only a vague excuse, even though there were a few things they needed, especially with all the tea placed off-limits due to possible contamination. _Why_ would somebody have drugged her tea, though? She wasn't anybody special; it just wasn't _possible_ that she could actually be 'Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Second Category, Unlimited, Norn of the Present, Daughter of the Almighty Himself' with a Valkyrie license and the fastest racing broom in Heaven. Such things were the stuff of delusions, straitjackets, padded rooms and men in white coats.

She had briefly considered, and just as quickly dismissed, the idea that either of her sisters might have done it. Skuld looked up to her, and adored her, sometimes to the point of being annoyingly clingy. Theirs might not be the most healthy relationship, but she would never do anything to harm her Onee-chan. Urd…wasn't the most reliable person, could even be frivolous and irresponsible sometimes, but her half-sisters meant the world to her. She might squabble with Skuld, and tease both of them, but she would never hurt either of them. Keiichi? Any thought that he might ever do anything remotely bad to her, Skuld or Urd was _really_ insane.

She was equally certain Urd wasn't lying to her. Drug or 'potion', there had been _something_ harmful in their tea, and Urd seemed confident she could isolate it, and prepare an antidote. But why did she believe her big sister? Why weren't they calling Poison Control, and getting professional help? Why did the very idea seem so _wrong?_

Why did Lind show up this morning, with three other soldiers, to guard them? Lind was a friend, although their history was as muddled as the rest of her past. She was definitely in the military, probably the Air Defense Force because what she thought she remembered couldn't _possibly_ be true, and what would a Valkyrie be doing in Japan, of all places, anyway?

"Belldandy!"

Someone was calling her name; had called it several times, she realized, but she'd been too preoccupied to notice. She turned, and instantly recognized the woman in the blue car.

"Oh, Mishima-san. I'm sorry, I guess I was a little…spaced out, there. Good afternoon."

Sayoko chuckled. "I noticed that. So, what are you doing, wandering around town in a daze? And sneakers, of all things?"

She sighed. "I'm not really sure. I just felt like I had to get out for a while. This day has gotten kind of…strange."

Leaving the house, she had been unable to find any of her shoes. She remembered _having_ shoes, several pairs of them, but they were nowhere to be found today. She had finally decided to borrow the pair of sneakers she'd discovered near the front door. She was sure Megumi wouldn't mind.

Sayoko smiled a devious little smile. "So, you're not busy right now?"

"Not really. I have a little shopping to do, but I'm not in any hurry."

The smile got wider, and even more devious. "I've got some shopping to do, too, and maybe you could help me."

"All right, if you really think I can help," Belldandy said uncertainly.

"Oh, I'm sure you can," she replied confidently. "You might have to open your mind a little, though. Come on. I'll take you to do your shopping when we're done."

She got in, and they drove halfway across town to a large mall. Neither woman had much to say. They drove up to a VIP parking area, and Sayoko stuck a plastic card in the automated gate. It opened for her, naturally, and she found a space near the mall entrance. They got out, still quiet, and walked through the mall until they reached what Belldandy recognized as a high-end women's apparel store, one she had never been to before. Sayoko was shopping for clothes today, it would seem.

Inside, they passed through several areas without pause, until Belldandy saw, with a sinking feeling, what their destination had to be."Sayoko, this is, is…"

Sayoko laughed, only a little unkindly. "Oh, come on, I know you can say it."

"…the lingerie department." she finished uncomfortably.

"That's right. You're not backing out on me, are you?"

That put things into perspective. "No. I gave my word."

"Good. I need a few things, and, we may not always get along, but there's no denying you've got taste."

"Thank you. I think."

The heiress laughed again, not unkindly this time. "Come on, loosen up a little. Who knows, you might find something you like." She fixed her with an impish grin and added playfully, "Or, something Morisato would like."

Belldandy blushed bright red and did not answer, and Sayoko laughed again.  
A sales-girl intercepted them before they got three steps in, and bowed to Sayoko. "Welcome back, Mishima-san. May I help you?"

"Yes, Yuriko. I want to look at a few things, and this is Belldandy. I'd like you to show her some of the…options that are available to her. Don't mind if she acts a little shy, it's for her own good."

Yuriko's answering smile was dauntingly enthusiastic. "It would be my pleasure, Mishima-san, Belldandy-san. If you would follow me?"

Belldandy had never imagined some of the…_options_ she saw over the next hour and a half. Within five minutes Sayoko had hung up her dress, gotten their opinions on a little something in red lace, and told Yuriko to put it on her tab. It took another ten minutes for both of them to coax her into trying on a rather conservative bra, one Urd wouldn't have given a second glance. It did look good on her, though.

Once the ice was broken, convincing her to look at something 'a little less timid' was easier. Sayoko and Yuriko teased her with 'options' even Urd would find racy, laughing. She was surprised to find that some of the articles did appeal to her. Not that third outfit Sayoko tried out, but maybe something a little less…_less?_

She wound up selecting several items, then remembered that she had only brought enough money for the few groceries she'd been planning to buy. She was asking Yuriko to have them held for her to pick up later when Sayoko told her to just add them to her tab.

"No, I can't accept that," she protested.

Sayoko shook her head. "That amount of money is trivial to me. Like a few hundred yen. The same as you buying someone…a cup of tea. You wouldn't see anything wrong with buying me a cup of tea, would you?"

"No…"

"Then accept this in the same spirit. You did help me with a few things, and…I had fun." She chuckled. "Some of your reactions were priceless!" Her humor faded. "And maybe, to make up for some of our…history. I did some things, when you first came to town, and…I'm not proud of them."

"If you're really sure…" she said reluctantly, but with a longing look at the merchandise.

"I'm sure. Although, now that I think about it, there is _one_ condition." She pointed out a couple of Belldandy's purchases. "You _have_ to wear those for Morisato, and tell me how red his face gets. Deal?"

Belldandy couldn't hold back a giggle. After a minute, she gave in. "All right. Deal."

"Good. Now, you said you had some shopping to do?"

She nodded. "I need to get tea, ramen, vegetables, a few other things."

Sayoko picked up her shopping bag and stood up. "You can buy all that right here in the mall. Let's go."

* * *

Jadwel walked along a Nekomi sidewalk, feeling…a tad irritated. She had just learned something the hard way. There was a difference between 'looking like a local' and 'being inconspicuous' and she had _not_ achieved the latter. Her deep red hair, with its subtle highlights, and her green eyes, were unusual colors here, and she was a Goddess, a Valkyrie, the very picture of fitness and physical near-perfection. She drew mortal eyes whether she meant to or not.

And then, there was her choice of camouflage.

She had intended the red dress to set off her hair. Well, it certainly did _that_. It was also tight, low-cut, and had a rather short skirt. Overall, it was quite revealing. Sleek red high-heeled shoes only added to the effect. Mortals stared at her, males especially. She had seen several of them blunder right into obstacles, and other mortals. Worst of all, she couldn't seem to find a place away from the ubiquitous creatures where she could get a minute unobserved to correct her mistake.

"I say, Miss, you look like you could use a ride."

Nekomi was a noisy place, and she hadn't heard that particular voice over all the other clamor until the second or third repetition. It came from a mortal in a spotless white suit with a flashy tie, sitting in a wheeled vehicle almost exactly the same color as her dress. It was not enclosed, like most of the other vehicles rushing about. He was looking avidly at her through metal-framed spectacles. She'd been told that some mortals needed such things to compensate for their vision deficiencies.

Seeing that he had her attention he went on, "Such lovely legs as yours shouldn't get all worn out with walking."

Jadwel recalled her Valkyrie training. She could march a hundred leagues through mountains, carrying more than her own weight, and never got worn out. Of course, right now she was pretending to be a much weaker, fragile mortal woman. What would a mortal woman do in this situation?

"You must be new in town," the mortal continued. "I would have noticed you, and I couldn't possibly have forgotten such a vision. Are you in need of a little help, finding your way around a new city?"

_This situation has possibilities_, she thought to herself. _This mortal knows the terrain, and I can cover more ground in the vehicle than I could on foot, at least without drawing even more attention to myself._

She approached the vehicle and examined him more closely. "Who are you?"

"Oh! Where are my manners? I'm Toshiyuki Aoshima," he proclaimed proudly. "_The_ Toshiyuki Aoshima. I'm so used to everyone knowing who I am, I neglected to introduce myself. And what might your name be, sweet lady?"

"I am Jadwel." Her pronunciation was about midway between 'Jadwel' and 'Yodvel' with a slight musical lilt most male mortals would find irresistible. As this one clearly did.

"Jadwel." He pronounced it rather carelessly. "A perfectly charming name. Could it be that you're looking for something, Jadwel-chan?"

She was reluctant to disclose her mission, but — _I don't seem to be making any progress on my own, and this is only a mortal. What harm could there be?_

"I'm looking for someone. Her name is Belldandy, about my height, light brown hair—"

"Belldandy!" the mortal exclaimed. "You're a friend of Belldandy's? I know her quite well. Of course I can help you find her!" He reached across and opened the door. "Get in, and let's be off!"

All of her misgivings evaporated as she sat in the vehicle and shut the door. _What a stroke of luck, to randomly run across one of Belldandy's friends! I'll find her in no time!_

Half an hour later, she was not nearly so confident, nor so certain that this Toshiyuki Aoshima knew Belldandy well at all. He brushed off her questions about where the Goddess might have gone, or what route she might have taken to get there. He _had_ asked some very personal questions about Belldandy and, with a sort of gloating eagerness, if she was in some kind of trouble. She had told him they'd attended the same school, she was in town for a few days, wanted to look her up, and she wasn't at home. All of those things were even true; they'd both gone through Valkyrie training, if more than a millennium apart. Jadwel wasn't a Goddess First Class yet, but she was preparing.

One of the vehicle's mechanical controls was next to her leg, and Aoshima kept reaching just a bit too far, groping her thigh instead of gripping the lever. It was becoming quite annoying. Several times, he had 'accidentally' pushed her skirt up. And, he talked about himself. Constantly. He was apparently related to a rich family that owned something called the 'Mishima Group' and had a vastly inflated sense of his own importance. He bragged that the 'Porsche 911 Turbo Convertible' they were riding in was very expensive, as was his suit, the spectacles, and even the tie. Owning things few other people owned seemed to make him feel even more important. Oddly, he never mentioned actually _doing_ anything important. He attended the same college as Morisato-san, and spent a lot of his family's money. As far as she could tell, those were his only accomplishments.

Toshiyuki also seemed oblivious to her growing impatience. He asked insistently and repeatedly to 'take her out' for dinner, drinks, dancing, and 'clubbing'. Jadwel regretfully concluded that the word meant something other than beating him over the head with a heavy blunt object, which was becoming a more and more appealing idea.

He turned another corner, and she recognized a building they had passed more than ten minutes ago. She was being driven around in, well, not circles, but…rectangles? Her patience reached its end. "Do you know where Belldandy is, or do you not? If not, you are of no use to me, and I will go find her myself!"

That interrupted his self-absorption, a little. He eyed her again and said craftily, "I know someplace she might be. I saw her there."

"Take me there. Now," she commanded.

The mortal grinned deviously to himself and took the next left turn. In a little more than ten minutes they pulled in before a wide, ornate four-story building with a kind of square turret thing on top bearing signs:

**HOTEL MAGIC 3**

Jadwel read the sign, worried. 'Hotel' meant a temporary living place, with rooms for short-term rental. Was Belldandy so determined to not return to the temple? This could pose difficulties. Nothing about her orders authorized her to drag the wayward Goddess back to safety by force. _First things first. Find out if she is here._

Aoshima parked the car in a space marked RESERVED. They got out, he escorted her to the front door and opened it for her with an unpleasant little smirk. The lobby was even more ornate than the exterior, but the decor was decidedly tacky. And…suggestive. All manner of erotic apparel and devices were on display, evidently for sale, and the ones she recognized clued her to the nature of the many she didn't. The place positively reeked of mortal pheromones. Why would Belldandy be **_here?_**

Her 'escort' strode boldly up to the front desk as if he owned the place, ignoring three couples waiting in line. "Is my usual suite available?" She followed, now on the alert.

The man behind it gave the people Aoshima had barged ahead of an apologetic, long-suffering look before checking the computer. "Yes, Aoshima-san. One hour, two…?"

He gave the manager a knowing grin. "One to start. If I'm not down in an hour, extend it."

"Very well, sir." He passed a small, colorful plastic card across the counter. Aoshima took it and turned to her.

Jadwel was grimly holding her temper in check. What an arrogant, entitled, self-important little—

"I've booked us the finest suite in this establishment!" he announced proudly, with a lecherous grin. "Toshiyuki Aoshima can always afford the best!"

Apparently a mortal woman was supposed to be sufficiently impressed by now to engage in sex with this odious creature. She had never been more glad to be a Goddess. She turned a scowl upon the mortal. Anyone who knew her would be running for his life. "And you seem to believe that includes me."

"Now, don't take it that way," he said smoothly. "Let's just have a little fun, and—"

"You told me Belldandy might be here. Is she?"

"Hey, now, it takes time to find these things out. Why don't we go up to the suite, have a few drinks, get to know each other a little better, let me do some checking, and then I can tell you."

"I do not care to know you any better. I am looking for Belldandy, and you said you were going to help me find her. So, start helping."

"Help is supposed to go _both_ ways, you know. Why don't we help each other?"

"I never offered to help you relieve your sexual frustrations," she said acidly, "and if this is how you treat women, it's no wonder you're frustrated. What woman would want you? I don't."

"You're just like _her_," he retorted. "Always thinking she's so much _better_ than everybody."

"Your flattery means nothing to me, and I'm not much like Belldandy at all. She's a lot more understanding, and forgiving, and she wouldn't be nearly as pissed off as I am right now."

The manager looked on with a strange mixture of alarm and resignation. As if he wasn't the least bit surprised to have Aoshima and a beautiful woman causing an ugly scene in his lobby. More people were drifting in, drawn by their raised voices. The other couples had turned away from the desk now, and everybody was watching with interest, obviously enjoying the show.

Aoshima still believed he was in control, and tried wheedling her once more. "Come on, won't you at least have a look at the suite? It's the deluxe, and it's got _everything_. You'll like it." He took her arm and started escorting her to the elevator. She disengaged herself from his grasp with a quick move, deeply ingrained from her centuries of training and practice. She barely restrained herself from a follow-through that would break the miscreant's arm in at least two places.

"**Back off, maggot!**" she barked. Jadwel had done a few stints at boot camp, training new Valkyries, and the habits came back to her in times of stress and frustration. Like now.

He recoiled, startled. "Hey, what did I do to deserve that?" he asked indignantly.

"Hmmm, let me think. _Everything?_ Yes, that sounds about right." She pitched her voice to a penetrating timbre she used for berating the new recruits, verbally knocking them down and grinding their faces into the mud. "You've rented that suite, and you say it's got _everything_, so I'm sure there's something you can use to relieve your sexual frustrations all on your own. Go enjoy yourself for, what, an hour? That should be more than enough time." She snickered nastily. "Hell, if you _did_ manage to hoodwink some poor woman into giving you what you want, I'm sure at least fifty-nine and a half minutes of it would be wasted on you!"

"You _are_ just like her. Think you're too good for anybody," he said petulantly. "And then, what does she do? Lets that Morisato loser hang all over her. What's she thinking?"

"She's thinking Keiichi Morisato is a far better man than you," Jadwel stated. "And she's right. He is."

"That broke loser, with the broken-down old bike? Don't make me laugh. I could buy a hundred of him, easy."

"**_You_** could not buy a hundredth of one Keiichi Morisato if you had all the money in the world. Every word you say proves it."

"I can buy—"

"**Shut it!**" she barked again. "You really are stupid enough to believe you can impress me, or Belldandy, or anyone just by spending money, aren't you? Any idiot can _spend money!_ If you actually had something to do with _making_ that money it might mean something, but you didn't and it doesn't. You're useless!"

"_Morisato's_ useless!" he protested.

"From what I've observed, Morisato-san truly is worthy to be Belldandy's love," Jadwel said judiciously, then frowned and blasted Aoshima. "The only thing **_you're_** worthy of is my boot up your ass!" She had momentarily forgotten that she was wearing high heels. If anything, they made her threat even more menacing.

"You wouldn't dare! My father is—" Aoshima sputtered resentfully.

Once in a while they got Valkyrie candidates with similar attitudes, who believed that their backgrounds or connections entitled them to _special_ treatment, made them _too good_ to put up with some of the more rigorous and unpleasant aspects of Valkyrie training. Jadwel rather enjoyed disabusing them of their misapprehensions, and had become quite accomplished at it.

She stepped forward and got right in his face. The high heels raised her a couple of centimeters above him. In her most penetrating, recruit-bashing voice she cut off his blustering. "Your _father_ is not here for you to hide behind today. It's just you, and me, and personally, I wouldn't bet on you! I don't think I've seen a more pathetic excuse for a man in the last ten years. You've got a big mouth, and nothing to back it up except money that was handed to you by somebody else. You're vain, and conceited, even though you've never accomplished anything significant in your entire miserable life. You act like a big shot, but there is nothing behind the facade. You tried to take advantage of me, you depraved little prick, as you have no doubt taken advantage of many women before, and in your ignorant arrogance you assumed that I would allow you to do so. Well, you were wrong! You believe you are important, but you mean _nothing_ to me, and I find you thoroughly repulsive. You are unworthy of the money you spend, and the things you buy. You're just a worthless little wanker that _might_ have one piece of information that's useful to me, but it's not worth the trouble of beating it out of you. If I had six months and a free hand I _might_ manage to make a worthwhile human being out of you, but I wouldn't give any guarantees. Calling you a slimy little worm would be an insult to worms! And — slimy…things."

Aoshima had attempted to interrupt her several times, but she was well accustomed to protests from her prey and had rolled right over them without the slightest pause. He was plainly _not_ accustomed to facing a woman who was intimidating, rather than intimidated. He retreated from her again and actually pouted while stammering out, "You— you can't talk to me that way! Nobody talks to Toshiyuki Aoshima that way!" He tried to sound superior, but only managed to sound like a spoiled child.

"Maybe that's the problem," she snarled, stalking another predatory step forward. "Somebody should have. Now, for the final time, **where is Belldandy?!**"

"You think I'd tell _you_, after the way you've treated me?" he whined spitefully. "And you can find your own way back to town, too!" He turned and rushed out the front door fast enough to take even her by surprise for a moment.

Jadwel turned to follow, and somebody started clapping. More joined in, and within seconds everybody in the lobby was applauding and cheering her, even the manager. She gave them all a big smile, swept an elaborate bow, and headed off after Aoshima.

She caught up with him just as he was backing his vehicle out of the parking space. Later, she admitted that she might have overdone things just a bit. She made a complex gesture with her left hand while reciting a few words in Yggdrasil's programming language, then clenched her fist.

Aoshima's vehicle emitted a deafening **BANG** from somewhere inside, followed by an excruciating mechanical death rattle, and thick, greasy black smoke poured out of every gap and opening, completely enveloping the mortal. Coughing and choking, he fumbled blindly for almost a minute before managing to open the door and stagger out, coated from head to foot with a heavy, grimy, smelly black residue. Only the seat of his pants was relatively unsullied. The glasses were coated too, and when he took them off they revealed just small clear spots around the eyes. He blinked blearily, coughed some more, hawked and spat out a slimy black glob. Black goo seeped from his nose. Wiping the glasses on his suit was useless; both articles were equally filthy. The smoke ascended, and got even thicker.

"**WHERE IS BELLDANDY?!**" Jadwel bellowed in her best parade-ground voice. Valkyrie recruits two hundred yards away would have jumped to attention.

"I don't know!" the mortal croaked desperately. "I haven't seen her. Now leave me alone…just…leave me alone."

A flickering red glow was becoming visible, and she heard crackling noises, and felt heat on her exposed skin. She took a couple of steps farther away from the vehicle. "You mean you've just been wasting my time? I endured your insufferable company for the last hour for **NOTHING?!**"

Aoshima didn't answer, shambling helplessly around his car, which was now thoroughly on fire. Several people had followed her out the front door, hoping for more entertainment, and others paused on the sidewalk, drawn by the commotion. A few held their cell phones up, facing the minor inferno. Jadwel took one last, disgusted look at the pathetic sight, turned and started walking. They had driven a considerable distance, and she still didn't want to draw attention with any superhuman actions, so the trip would take an inconveniently long time. She devoutly hoped that Kara was having better luck.

A dark blue car that was passing by slowed down, turned in, and stopped a short distance away. The engine shut off, the front door opened, and a glamorous dark-haired woman got out. She took in the scene, the befouled mortal, the remains of his once-swanky Porsche convertible, the sullen flames, the pillar of heavy black smoke, the irate redhead, and said in an aggrieved, bored, resigned tone, "Really, Toshiyuki?"

"Sayoko?" he said with vast relief, squinting and blinking. "You're a lifesaver. Gimme a ride—"

"**NO!**" she squawked frantically. "You're not getting _near_ my car in that condition." She could tell instantly, nobody would ever get the stains, and the stench, out of her BMW's upholstery. Or that suit. "I wouldn't put you in the _trunk!_ I'll call somebody for you, if you want, but I'm _not_ giving you a ride."

As she was speaking, the opposite door opened and another woman got out. This one had long, light brown hair, with four unruly strands sticking up in the front, big blue eyes in a face both beautiful and kind…

"Belldandy!" the Valkyrie exclaimed in pleased surprise. Finally, something was going right! Mission accomplished!

The Goddess who couldn't believe she was a Goddess thought for a second and said, "You're Jadwel, right?" _She_ pronounced the name perfectly.

She smiled. "That's right. You— you didn't tell anybody you were leaving, and, well, we got worried. I've been looking for you."

"Oh…" Belldandy suddenly looked guilty. "I'm sorry…"

Jadwel shook her head and said emphatically, "No, it's okay. Everything's okay. _You're_ okay. Everything's just great." She went on grinning foolishly for a few seconds. "Oh, is it okay if I call the temple, and let them know I found you?"

"Yes, of course…"

She pulled out her Valkyrie comm unit, disguised for the mission as a Midgard cell phone, and opened a channel. "Lind, Jadwel. Bell located. Returning to base." She listened for a few seconds, said, "Clear," closed the channel and put it away.

"So, um, will you…come back to the temple?" she asked Belldandy, hesitantly.

"Yes, of course. I didn't mean to worry anyone, I just…" her attention seemed to wander for a few seconds. "…I needed to get away, for a little while. I'm all right now. Let's go home. Sayoko, will you give us a ride? Oh, this is Jadwel, a…an acquaintance, from my home country."

Sayoko sighed, and nodded slightly. "Jadwel. I apologize for my cousin, and whatever he did to you. Whatever you did to _him_, I'm sure he deserved it." She looked at Aoshima, with his own phone out, trying to wipe the screen clean with a notable lack of success, then back at Belldandy. "Eventually, he'll remember they have showers in the rooms here, and go use one. And the phone. And I'm sure somebody has called the fire department by now. We'll be in their way. Shall we go?"

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Thanks to HotelKatz for reminding me that Toshiyuki Aoshima is the Designated Butt-Monkey for all Oh My Goddess! Fan Fiction, and must always get abused at least once for being such a disgusting lech.

Yeah, I know the 'clubbing' pun only works in English, but I just couldn't resist. Well, I didn't try very hard.  
And 'wanker' probably doesn't translate into Japanese.

Hotel Magic 3 is indeed the same one Belldandy blasted Aoshima out of in Oh My Goddess! Chapter 20. It's called 'MOTEL l'Amour' in some translations, but I went with the official Dark Horse one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"…and I had a feeling we should stop and see what that smoke was." Belldandy concluded as they pulled up outside the temple gate.

Jadwel had related an account of her afternoon, and neither of the women had shown any surprise at Aoshima's misdeeds. Belldandy had done her best not to laugh at another's misfortune, but Sayoko hadn't even tried to hold it in. Jadwel remembered, just in time, that she couldn't mention magic in front of Belldandy and the mortal, and simply told them that 'something went wrong' with Aoshima's vehicle. They'd have to make of that whatever they would. She'd deliver her full report to Lind later.

Sayoko declined Belldandy's invitation to stay, and unlocked the trunk. Belldandy removed three bags, two clearly full of various foods, the third bearing a stylized logo, its contents indeterminate from the outside. Norn and Valkyrie climbed the front steps as the car turned around and headed back to Nekomi. Jadwel would have liked to assist her, but she was still on duty and had to remain unencumbered. She felt Lind open the barrier for them, then restore it behind them.

Lind stood between the house and temple, confirming that they were who they appeared to be. Jadwel gave her a quick salute, fist to chest, and she nodded in return and resumed her rounds. Gunnr nodded to them from the porch as they approached. Jadwel stopped to talk with her fellow Valkyrie as Belldandy continued into the house.

Putting the groceries away was a matter of five minutes or so, and then she needed to stop at the bathroom before heading towards the sleeping quarters.

Tinkering sounds came from Skuld's room, silence from the others. She tapped on Keiichi's door. "Keiichi?" She waited, then hesitantly opened it and gazed at the empty room, disappointed.

She tried Urd's room next, got a distracted "Yeah?" and decided to take it as an invitation.

Urd's workbench was covered with…stuff. Vials, tubes and flasks of various colored liquids, in racks or sitting in small clusters, jars of granulated substances or irregular lumps, and a few sealed bottles of swirling vapors. Some of them glowed. Something blue and murky bubbled over a small flame, giving off faint wisps of purple fumes. There was no candle or burner producing the flame, it just _was_.

Urd herself was studying a matrix of multicolored luminous runes that hovered in the air before her. "Almost there. Give me another half hour and I'll know what's what with this damn potion," she said without turning away.

There were more runes, many more, than the space should have been able to contain. They extended into the higher dimensions Mara's potion forbade them to think about. A mortal wouldn't even see them. Urd used her fingertips to move a few of the runes around, flicked another one and it vanished in a tiny puff of orange smoke.

Belldandy didn't reply. She couldn't. Her mind refused to accept the things she was seeing.

Urd noticed the silence after a few more seconds and turned towards the door. "Lind?" Their eyes met and her face instantly broke into a huge smile of pleased relief. "Bell! You're back! Are you okay? Is…everything okay?"

Belldandy shook her head helplessly, denying everything about the situation.

Her sister understood the problem at once and rose to her feet. "Here, let's go to your room. Mine's kind of, ah, not fit for company right now."

Back in the hall with the door shut on all those impossible sights, Belldandy's condition improved rapidly. She accompanied Urd to her door, then asked, "Where's Keiichi?"

"Tamiya and Otaki drafted him for something about an hour after you left," she said, relieved. "They'll probably keep him out half the night, but I'm sure he'll be fine." Lind would have told her if he'd left the Nekomi Motor Club.

"Oh…"

"Miss him, Bell?"

Belldandy fidgeted nervously. "Yes. I want— I want him here. I need…"

Urd stepped forward and held her shoulders, lightly. Belldandy flung her arms around her big sister and clung tight, trembling. She returned the hug gratefully. "It'll be all right, Bell. I'm almost done analyzing the — drug. Preparing the antidote shouldn't take too long. And until then, you know I'll be here for you, right?"

Belldandy squeezed tighter, and nodded. After a couple of minutes she relaxed and stepped back. The shopping bag, still in her hand, crackled. Urd looked, recognized the logo, and chuckled. "Been shopping, I see. Whaj'ya get?"

"Some…things," she said, blushing.

"Oho! Sister mine, are you telling me you've finally decided to emerge from the Victorian Age? Show me, show me!"

"Um, they're a little…"

"Think you're going to shock _me?_ Come on, Belldandy, you know what I wear."

She giggled. "_Everybody_ knows what you wear."

"So, show me. Let your Big Sis see what you bought."

A short time later they sat on the floor in Belldandy's room, packages of unmentionables piled between them. Urd looked through the various items with approval, and only a few teasing comments. "Sayoko dragged you in there, huh? Well, I see you've still got your unerring sense of style. Any of these will look great on you," she said, then resumed her teasing tone. "And I'm sure Keiichi will appreciate them, too."

"Urd!" she squeaked, blushing even more.

"That's what they're _for_, Bell," Urd said insistently. "Not to be neglected in your closet, or wasted looking at yourself in the mirror." She chuckled and said challengingly, "Tell me you weren't thinking about Keiichi when you got them."

"Urd…" she protested weakly.

"See, I knew it. Now," she looked everything over speculatively, "you just have to decide which ones to wear first."

Belldandy shook her head. "Oh, no, I couldn't…"

"Sure you can," her sister encouraged her. "Just take them out of the packages and put them on. It's simple, just pick a couple and go for it."

She was still shaking her head.

"Come on, Belldandy, you can do it," Urd coaxed her. "You know me. I'll never stop, so you might as well give in now and save us both the trouble."

That at least got a giggle out of her.

"There's nothing to be nervous about," she reassured the reluctant Goddess. "Keiichi's not even here, Skuld's busy in her room, and the— Lind's squad, are out patrolling the grounds. Nobody but you and me."

After a few more minutes of Urd's relentless entreaties, she poked through her selection, but couldn't make up her mind. Urd laughed and made suggestions, and she wound up picking the very items Sayoko had specified as part of her 'deal'. Urd congratulated her on the choice, then spent still more time persuading her to actually disrobe, and put them on.

"You look great, Bell, just great," her big sister assured her. "Now you need to get comfortable with wearing them. Keep them on under your clothes, all day. Nobody else will even know." She giggled. "And you can try imagining how Keiichi would react, if he knew your secret."

That got a much bigger giggle.

Urd hugged her again. "I've got to get back to work on your antidote, but if you need _anything_, just knock on my door, let me know it's you and I'll be right out. Okay?"

She returned the hug and smiled, more at ease now. "All right. Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me. I'm your Big Sister, and I love you. I'll do anything for you."

Belldandy nodded, squeezed her tight one last time and let go. "I'll do anything for you, too. You know that."

"Course I do. We're sisters. We're always there for each other." Urd smiled, and returned to her work with a fresh sense of determination. That potion didn't stand a chance!

Belldandy stood in front of her mirror again. She looked…very different. She _felt_ different. Trying these…articles on briefly in a store, making decisions, had been distracting. Now she had time to think, to _feel_. She nibbled her lip. There was a slight temptation to take them off, abandon the experiment, but…

_I look **good**. Why did I never try this before? What was holding me back?_

She put a blouse and knee-length skirt on over her naughty undies, and checked the mirror again. No trace of them showed now. She felt a little thrill, like she was going undercover, her secret unsuspected by those around her. This could be…_fun_.

She puttered around the house, cleaning up, until it was time to start supper. Keiichi's absence gnawed at her, much more than she was accustomed to.

Urd glowered resentfully at the complex array of runes that floated above her workbench, mocking her. She had finished analyzing Mara's potion more than an hour ago and something just didn't add up. She was completely confident that she had identified every ingredient, every production step, every incantation and application of demonic energy, the exact timing of each…she could whip up a batch herself in a few hours if she wanted to. She fully understood the accursed stuff.

So _why_ wasn't it doing what it _had_ to do, being what it was? Its effects were as clear as everything else about it; Mara had done a competent job of turning out a perfectly straightforward mind-altering potion. It would make any mortal reject magic, supernatural phenomena, and non-human presences. It should hardly have affected Belldandy and Skuld at all.

Yggdrasil agreed with her. She'd run simulations, after her analysis was complete, with slight variations of temperatures, timing, and other factors, and any change at all would produce something that did not match the potion sitting right in front of her. There was only one way to make what she had found in Belldandy's tea, and she had worked it out.

What _should_ be happening was, Keiichi should be repelled from Belldandy, should be rejecting her, should have immediately repudiated his wish and removed any reason for three Goddesses — well, two and a half, anyway — to continue hanging around Midgard. That had been Mara's obsession for the last two years, and this only her latest attempt.

Instead, all three of them were unable to accept the existence of magic, Goddesses and anything else beyond the strict physical laws of Midgard. Instead of tearing Belldandy and Keiichi apart, it appeared to have driven them closer together.

Most of those effects could not be explained by the formulation of the potion that had been put in their tea.

She felt a strong temptation to go beat some answers out of Mara, but it wouldn't do much good. It might give _her_ some satisfaction, but Mara didn't have the answers she needed in the first place. It would just be a waste of time.

She gritted her teeth. When this was over, she'd _have_ time. Mara would find out the hard way just what Urd, Goddess Second Class, Limited could do with _time_, and a grudge. Demon First Class or no, she would _not_ enjoy her edification.

_I am missing something. What is it? Why didn't this dratted potion do what it **had** to do?_

Something must have altered its effects, but what? It couldn't be the tea; the potion had been specifically formulated to blend in with this specific type of tea, so it wouldn't be detected. What else had it been mixed with? Water, and honey, she recalled. Belldandy liked to sweeten her tea with honey. It _couldn't_ have been the water — adding hot water to tea was kind of a requirement.

Could it have been the honey? Mara did tend to be careless, and often failed to allow for the unexpected. That was one of the prime causes of her frequent failures. Interactions with substances she hadn't anticipated being mixed with her potion would not be surprising. Indeed, Urd had noted a few things about the recipe that she would have done differently.

She moved her samples of the tea they'd been drinking out front. There wasn't much; Belldandy had finished hers, and the other two had left very little. Barely enough to tell that they did indeed contain the potion, honey, and the tiniest trace of celestial magic, no doubt a residue from when Belldandy prepared the tea. Not nearly enough to determine what had happened to the potion.

There was no honey in her much larger sample from the teapot, as expected. This one was big enough for her to confirm that the potion remained its original nasty self, and would have produced the expected effects. Evidence against the honey was mounting.

Time to go find some more answers. She stretched, thankful again for her non-cracking-and-popping immortal joints, and made her way to the kitchen where Belldandy was just starting supper. Now that she knew to look for it, she sensed the faint aura of magic permeating the kitchen. The stove, the rice cooker, even the pots and knives, all seemed to exude a kind of quiet contentment as Belldandy put them to their proper uses. Two years basking in her magic had brought them all to a sort of quasi-life.

"Hey, Bell."

"Urd?" She sounded a little uneasy.

"I've run into a bit of a roadblock, and maybe you can help. You put honey in that tea, right?"

"Yes…"

"Do you have any of it left?"

"Just a little. Why?"

"I need to analyze it. I think it might have interacted with the drug, and changed its effects."

"Oh." Belldandy looked even more uneasy. "Drug interactions can be bad, can't they?"

Urd smiled reassuringly. "They can, but I think this one has already done its worst."

Belldandy opened a cupboard and took out a pink stoneware crock, decorated with a floral design. "Here's what's left."

Urd accepted the jar, and found a distinct residue of magic on it. "Where did you get this?"

"It's a gift from Peorth. Is that important?"

"It could be. I think it's…foreign." **_That_** was an understatement! Heavenly honey, made from Peorth's own Elysian Roses, by celestial bees, gathered and prepared by Peorth herself…she was surprised the magic on it wasn't a _lot_ stronger. "How long have you been using this?"

"About a week. I've used it in a lot of things."

Urd took the lid off and looked inside, finding only a little honey in the bottom of a crock that had once held half a liter or so. That explained where all the magic had gone. Belldandy liked to use honey instead of sugar in many of her recipes.

"I'll probably have to use all of this up for analysis," she said regretfully.

"Well, there's no help for it, is there?" Belldandy replied. "I've got more honey, just not that kind."

"Thanks, Belldandy." She went on, trying to be reassuring, "I'm close. Once I figure out what happened between the, _drug_, and this honey, I should be ready to start on the antidote. Hang in there."

That got a wan smile. "It will be nice to have all this over with." The smile got bigger. "But don't miss supper. I know how you get when you're working on something. I'll send Skuld to fetch you, if you're late."

"I'll be there!" Urd assured her sister, with just a hint of comical desperation. "You don't have to do anything _that_ extreme!"

They both laughed. "Only if I have to," Belldandy warned her.

"All right," Urd said, still chuckling. "Say, are you still wearing your…_new clothes?_"

"Urd!" She blushed, giggled, and nodded.

"Well, good for you. Before long, you'll be ready to show Keiichi." She grinned at her sister's expression. "Meanwhile, I've got to get back to work."

Half an hour later, Urd scowled at the runes again. She was close now, Peorth's honey was one of the last variables, but she'd used it all up and Yggdrasil's results still didn't match her observations. There had to be at least one more factor, something she was still missing. There was one place she might find the answer. She got up, went to the hallway, and punched a long series of numbers into the phone.

It burred twice, then clicked. "_Oui?_"

"Peorth, it's Urd. I've got a problem. Have you heard about Belldandy and Skuld?"

"_Oui_. A potion, was it? Demonic?"

"That's right. One of Mara's little schemes. She put it in the tea, Belldandy added some of the honey you gave her, and it looks like the potion reacted with it."

"_Merde!_" the Rose Goddess exclaimed.

"Yeah, I said something of the sort myself, when I figured it out. Thing is, I've analyzed both the potion and what's left of your honey down to their constituent quarks, and the equations still won't balance. Something's missing."

"Something?" Now the voice on the phone sounded evasive.

Urd was in no mood for nonsense. "Peorth, I charge you by your oath as a Goddess First Class, is there something I need to know about that crock of honey? You can tell me, or you can tell Father. Your choice."

"Now, now, there is no need to be so unpleasant." Peorth sounded both irritated, and nervous. "I merely cast a simple, harmless little spell on it."

"Need I ask," Urd said heavily, "what _kind_ of a spell it was?"

"It was a love spell, of course," she said defensively. "A benign, subtle enchantment that would have no effect on those not already in love."

"And for two people who are in love?"

"It would bring them closer together."

"What if they were under a great deal of stress? Worried, unsure of themselves, even scared?"

"It should bring them _much_ closer. They would comfort each other, support each other, depend on each other."

"And it wouldn't have more…_direct_ effects?"

"I am a Love Goddess, not a _madam_," she snapped.

"Okay, okay, don't get your panties in a wad. I had to ask. If I don't know _everything_ about all the components, the antidote could be…off."

"Oh," Peorth said, somewhat mollified. "No, nothing like _that_. I _do_ have my standards, whether _some people_ understand that or not. Anyway, love is always the best aphrodisiac."

"If you say so. And I have my own standards, whatever _some people_ think."

"I suppose you do understand. So, do you have enough information now?"

"I think I know what happened, at least. Belldandy added your honey, loaded with celestial magic and your little love-spell, to tea with a mind-altering potion in it. Mara's not good at allowing for variables, so they interacted, both constructively and destructively, and now two Goddesses and a mortal think they're crazy every time they see magic."

"That Mara," the Rose Goddess said with asperity. "Always _tres negligent_. She should be sent back to Demon School, or something, so she won't be such an embarrassment to those of us who know what we're doing."

"I'm gonna _school_ her ass, when I'm done dealing with this disaster," Urd growled darkly. "I've got some ideas—" She stopped, and focused on the matter at hand. "Do you remember the spell you used? Exactly, every detail?"

"Of course I remember!" she said, incensed. "_I_ am not sloppy and careless."

"Okay, good. Can you get another crock of that honey, cast the same spell on it, and bring it to me? From the same batch, if possible. And try to match as many details of the spell as you can. Put the crock on the same spot on the table, even, when you cast it. I'm dealing with more variables than I like as it is."

"This is for Belldandy, and Keiichi, _oui?_ And Skuld, of course."

"Yes. They're my sisters, and he's my friend. A good friend."

"_D'accord_. It will take an hour or two."

"I've got some preparations I can make in the meantime. Are you going to use the Gate, or should I dig out a camera?"

"The Gate. Your Father is being very…_insistent_ about getting this matter resolved. Anything to do with it has a very high priority. You _did_ notice he sent four Valkyries?"

"All right, I'll expect you in a hour or two, then. If it's closer to an hour, you should be in time for supper. Whatever that potion did, Bell's still as good a cook as ever."

"I will do my best. _Au revoir_."

"Good-bye." She hung up the phone. She could hear Belldandy humming to herself in the kitchen, as she often did when she cooked. She could almost pretend that nothing was wrong…

Urd shook off the temptation. Things would get back to normal when she solved the last equation, synthesized the antidote potion and got all three of them to take it. She returned to her room, but stopped at the door, bothered by something she couldn't pin down, until she realized that it was the lack of sounds issuing from Skuld's Laboratory. She could sense her youngest sister's presence inside, but she didn't seem to be doing anything. That was almost unheard-of for the Norn of the Future.

"Skuld?" she called outside her door. No answer. She slid the panel open a short ways, and looked into the room. Skuld sat staring at something she'd been building, with a confused, lost expression. Urd nibbled her lip, then opened the door far enough to step inside and closed it behind her. She knelt beside her sister, not too close.

"Trouble?" she asked, low and soothing.

Skuld seemed not to have heard her, but then shook her head slowly and said in a tortured voice, "I don't know what this thing is."

Urd looked at it again. "It looks like another one of your crazy inventions."

"I can see _that_. I remember building it. I know what it's supposed to be when it's finished. But I can't…" She raised her hands, spread as if to take hold of something that she expected to be right in front of her but was not there. "…I can't figure out _how_ I built it, or what comes next. I try to work it out, I start to get it, but then it's like it takes a wrong turn off to someplace I can't follow." She finally looked away from the enigmatic device, up at her big sister's face. "What's happening to me?"

"It's the drug," she said, still soothing. "It's messing with your mind, keeping you from thinking straight. Pushing back against it won't do any good. The harder you try, the worse it's going to make you feel."

Skuld nodded miserably. "You got that right." She looked at the mysterious contraption again, then back to Urd. "What can I do?"

She smiled. "Try to put it out of your mind. Relax. Read your manga. Watch TV. Go outside, get some fresh air, look at the birds." She chuckled. "Get one of the Val— the soldiers, to give you some combat lessons. I'm making good progress. It won't be too much longer." She stood up, and turned to the door.

"Okay, Sis," Skuld said reluctantly. She really wanted to work on her inventions, but now, when she most needed to lose herself in her work, she couldn't even think about them without that confusion, that feeling of _wrongness_. Urd gave her another smile, and returned to her own room, her own work.

Staring at her half-finished whatsit got her nothing but frustration. She thought about manga, and TV, but neither prospect held much appeal. nor did staying in her room. She stood up, let herself out, and slid the door shut behind her. Belldandy was in the kitchen, making supper, so she wouldn't have any attention to spare. She got kind of…focused, on her cooking.

She stopped by the bathroom, not from any real need, but mostly because she couldn't think of what else to do. She made her way through the house, noted in passing that Belldandy was as absorbed in her work as she'd expected, and finally wandered out the front door. Birds were no more or less interesting than anything else at the moment. Sitting in a chair near the door, watching the yard, was one of the four soldiers who'd showed up that morning, the beautiful red-haired one named…Jadwel, that was it.

"Jadwel? Are you busy?"

"Hi, Skuld-san. Not really. i'm just on standby right now. Nothing to do unless something happens."

"Do you expect something to happen?"

"Yes. And no. It's not about expecting, it's about being ready for whatever might happen."

"Why are you here?" She took another chair, a short distance from Jadwel.

The Valkyrie smiled. "I'm a— a soldier. My commanding officer sayeth unto me, 'Go', and I go. Today, she told me to go here."

"But, why? Why send four soldiers here, to guard an old temple?"

She smiled again. "They usually don't tell us _why_. Defend this, attack that, guard these people until relieved. It lets us concentrate on doing the job, without distractions."

"Oh."

"On the other hand, I'm not a drone. I do think about _why_, during my own time, and make some guesses. Usually they're pretty good guesses. Today, my guess is we're here to protect you and your sisters while you're vulnerable."

That didn't make much sense. "Protect us from what?"

Jadwel paused. They'd been briefed about the situation — and with Lind, 'brief' was exactly the right word — and she'd spent some fifteen minutes in Sayoko's car talking with her and Belldandy. She had gotten a feel for what she could and couldn't say to a Goddess under the influence of that demon's potion.

"You and your sisters are related to some important people," she explained. "Somebody has already struck at you once, by drugging your tea. My commanders, and the people above them, are probably concerned that it might have been only a precursor to a more serious attack. We're here to ensure that such a follow-up attack will not succeed, and put some real hurt on anybody that does try to take advantage of your condition."

Skuld thought her words over. "So that's why they sent two of you out after Belldandy. You found her, right?"

Jadwel grimaced. "Not really. I was out looking for her, but mostly, I let some low-life waste my time."

"But, you brought her back."

The Valkyrie chuckled self-deprecatingly. "More like, she brought me. I was looking at a long walk back from some sex hotel that asshole took me to while pretending to help me look for her, and then she just kind of popped up on her own. She found me, more than I found her."

Skuld looked at her, puzzled. "Most of that doesn't make much sense."

She sighed. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me now, either. That mor— on, was one smooth talker. Said he was a friend of Belldandy's, and would help me find her. I think he was lying."

"Who was the moron?" she asked suspiciously. "Do you remember his name?"

"It will be a while before I can forget _that_ name." Jadwel said with disgust. "He must have repeated it thirty times. Toshiyuki Aoshima," She mocked his self-important tone when she said it.

"Aoshima!" Skuld blurted out. "That sleazy pervert!"

"I made the same assessment," she replied with a twisted half-smile. "I'm glad you concur."

"He's been after Onee-chan since forever. She doesn't like him, and she likes _everybody_. But she acts nice to him, so he keeps trying."

"Hmph. I don't think it has anything to do with her. I _didn't_ act nice to him, and he kept trying anyway."

"Was that why he left you at the, uh, hotel?"

"Not exactly. He was stranded there, too. His car caught on fire."

"It _did?_" Skuld's whole face lit up with malicious glee. "Serves him right. What else happened to him?"

"Well, he was sitting in it when it caught fire, so he got completely covered in some really nasty, oily sooty crap that came pouring out." She giggled. "He was wearing a white suit, too. _Was_."

Skuld laughed out loud. "Then what happened?"

"I asked again, where Belldandy was, and he finally admitted he didn't know. I yelled at him one last time, and started that long walk back, and then Sayoko drove up, with Belldandy. He tried to get a ride with her, but she refused. She said he was too filthy to put in the trunk."

Skuld laughed harder. "Sayoko's his cousin, and a stuck-up rich bitch, and even _she_ doesn't like him. I don't think anybody does, really, but he's got a lot of money so they let him push them around."

"That's the impression I got, that he was accustomed to having his own way," Jadwel snickered nastily. "Well, he didn't have his way with _me_. I told him to go take care of his own sexual frustrations, right there in the lobby."

Skuld laughed some more. "I wish Onee-chan would tell him that. Then he might leave her alone."

"I _thought_ he had an unhealthy interest in Belldandy. He asked me some very personal questions about her, things I don't know, and wouldn't talk about if I did."

"That…" Skuld growled, but was apparently unable to come up with anything bad enough. "You should have beat the shit out of him."

"Believe me, I was tempted. Especially after he grabbed my leg for the tenth or twelfth time. But," she peered intensely into the young Goddess's eyes, "I'm a soldier. I'm trained to fight, and kill, enemy soldiers, and I'm very, very good at it. I _could_ have beaten the shit out of Aoshima. I could have _killed_ the little wanker, without even trying. But with that kind of power come heavy responsibilities. I can't go around beating and killing everybody that pisses me off, no matter how tempting it can be sometimes. Or how much I might think they deserve it. Me fighting that— that civilian, would be like a tiger fighting a rat. It wouldn't prove anything." She snorted. "Kicking his ass wouldn't even be satisfying."

"I still wish you'd beaten the shit out of him," Skuld said stubbornly.

"I think he had a bad enough day without me beating him up."

"I hope so." It was a fine afternoon, not too hot, and Skuld looked out across the temple grounds, still restless, still finding nothing she wanted to do.

Lind walked around the end of the house, watching everything at once. She gave them both a slight smile as she passed. She would continue her watch, sometimes still, sometimes moving, always by different routes, never repeating any predictable routine. In another half hour she would be relieved by Gunnr and get a few hours sleep.

Jadwel was good company, talking or not. They gazed at the small bits of Nekomi they could see, felt the wind, watched the trees sway, saw Lind walk past a few more times. Banpei was patrolling, too, keeping his distance from the Valkyries. They saw Sigel a couple of times, keeping her distance from Banpei. Skuld began to feel better than she had since…since their morning tea, when her whole life had suddenly stopped making sense. Urd and Jadwel must be right, there had been something dastardly in that tea. She could only hope Urd was right about making an antidote, too.

She'd certainly been right about getting her mind off things. By the time Belldandy announced supper, she was actually feeling relaxed.

"See you later, Jadwel. It's been nice talking to you."

The Valkyrie smiled. "You, too, Skuld-san. Later."

Supper was a rather quiet and awkward affair. Skuld sat in Keiichi's usual place, the end of the table to Belldandy's left, Urd to her right. One of them would start to say something, only to run into topics involving magic, or other realms, and stumble to a confused halt. Urd assured them that she was making progress, but was unable to provide them with any details they could accept.

Halfway through the meal, Urd felt the Gate activate. Belldandy and Skuld must feel it too, but they would be rejecting any knowledge of what that feeling meant. With the Valkyries' barrier in place, Peorth would have to be set down outside the temple compound. The most convenient place was in front of the main gate. The Valkyries would let her in, and she'd be here in a minute or two. Explaining to her sisters _how_ she knew all that would be problematic, so she'd pretend she didn't.

When the knock came, Urd stood up. "I'll get it."

As expected, Peorth stood on the porch. "I brought what you asked for."

She nodded and murmured, "Give it to me after supper," then raised her voice. "Good evening, Peorth. We're just having supper. Will you join us?"

"_Certainement_, Urd." she replied with a smile.

Urd shut the door, and led the way back to the table. "Look who's here," she announced.

Peorth smiled. "Belldandy! Skuld! I am so sorry to hear about your troubles. Urd-chan asked me to stop by and consult with her about the antidote, so of course I came. If there's anything else I can do to help you, just ask."

"I invited her to have supper with us," Urd informed them. "I'm already up, so I'll get her a plate."

They all settled in to finish their meal. Peorth chatted cheerfully with them, and Urd had to poke her under the table with her toe, several times, to stop her talking about forbidden subjects. She was both regretful, and resentful. The meal ended without any major incidents, and Skuld helped Belldandy clean up as Peorth and Urd retired to her room.

As soon as the door shut, Peorth pulled out a crock of honey with a flourish. It looked nearly identical to the first one, and Urd could feel its inherent magic without even touching it. She made a quick check of the love-spell.

"Harmless little spell, huh?" she challenged the Rose Goddess. "Sucker's got some real kick to it."

"You must admit, Keiichi is _un peu obstiné_," she replied defensively. "It takes a lot to get through his hard head."

Urd chuckled. "You've got a point. Did you bring a copy of the source?

"_Oui_." Peorth gestured, and a small runic matrix opened beside Urd's larger one.

The Norn studied them both, spoke a few words, and swept them together, merging Peorth's 'harmless little love-spell' into her analysis of the potion. She took the crock, set it on her workbench and opened the lid, releasing a fresh wave of magic. She drew out a sample, measured it into a test tube, added a solution she had prepared, and set it on a little stand that placed it in just the right position in her multi-dimensional array of runes. She touched half a dozen runes with her fingertips and spoke in Yggdrasil's programming language.

Runes blinked, changed colors, shifted around, and morphed into different runes. The liquid turned yellow, then blue, then shaded slightly to greenish and stopped there. One by one, the runes stabilized in a new configuration. Two of them seemed uncertain of where they belonged until Urd touched them and spoke a few more words. One of them locked into place, the other one changed color.

Peorth looked on, impressed. This was very high-level magic, and Urd performed it with care and confidence. The Norn turned to her. "Will you cross-check?"

"_Oui_." She touched various runes, spoke a few words, but nothing changed. "Analysis complete, and confirmed. This is the final form of the potion that has affected Belldandy, Keiichi and Skuld."

Urd blew out a sigh of relief, set the sample tube aside, put the cover back on the honey crock and handed it to Peorth. "Take that spell off and you can give this to Belldandy, to replace what I had to use up. Oh, and there's the empty. I'm sure you can use it."

"Are you sure? From what I see here, without my spell Keiichi would almost certainly have left Belldandy and canceled his wish."

Urd just looked at her.

"_Oui, oui, d'accord_, the spell has done its work anyway. I will remove it before giving it to her." No more need be said; the word of a Goddess First Class was inviolate. She wouldn't try to weasel around her promise by re-casting it, or casting a different spell, either.

Urd studied the array in more detail, now that it was complete. "Looks like your honey did more than just change the potion's effects, it enhanced the stuff too. The original would have worn off in two or three days, but this beast will last more than two weeks."

Peorth was studying it beside her. "And then it will slowly fade over several days. They will become quite disturbed as their original memories and thought patterns re-emerge, and conflict with the lingering effects. Mara has much to answer for."

"Oh, believe me, she will," Urd growled. "And I'm feeling particularly _creative_ about her…lesson."

Peorth chuckled. "_Bonté divine_, I think I just felt a chill."

Urd swept her hand across the runes, locking the array, then pushed it up, back and to the left, out of her way but handy for reference. She created a new matrix and placed a few standard runes in it. "Now I can get started on the antidote."

"Not really my forte, I'm afraid," Peorth admitted.

"I know, but you've been very helpful. I want you to check my work when it's done, too. You can do that."

"_Oui_." She made both honey crocks disappear. "Well, I'll go visit with Belldandy and Skuld for a while, maybe have a few words with Lind. Don't pull an all-nighter, or you'll make stupid mistakes and I'll never let you forget them."

"Wasn't planning on it," Urd said with a chill in her voice.

"You never do, and then the sun's coming up." She chuckled at Urd's dirty look. "I've done it too, _mon amie_."

She snuck into Keiichi's room, removed the love spell, slipped back out and gave the honey to Belldandy. "Urd told me about having to use it up, and asked me to bring more."

They visited, but so many subjects were _verboten_ that they had little to talk about. Skuld was being more clingy than usual. Belldandy was distracted, and kept looking towards the front door, and the temple gate. Skuld became more and more frustrated.

Gunnr was on watch, Lind and Kara were sleeping, and Jadwel was standing by for her turn. They discussed her illuminating afternoon searching for Belldandy, and dealing with Aoshima. Peorth laughed and laughed, having been forced to deal with the would-be Lothario a few times herself.

Jadwel took her turn on watch. Gunnr retired to a side room of the temple where the Valkyries had laid out their bedrolls, woke Kara and sacked out. Peorth chatted with Kara; for her it was early afternoon and she wasn't the least bit tired.

It was well after ten when they heard the Motor Club's vehicle again. Sora Hasegawa dropped off a rather woozy Keiichi, kept out late for celebration and too much beer. It was hard to refuse 'just one more' when Tamiya insisted.

Belldandy rushed out and helped him up the steps, up the walk, into the house, and to his room.

Skuld heard them, opened her door and stepped into the hall behind them. "About time you got back. Where have you been? What have you been up to?" She sniffed. "You're drunk!"

"Tamiya, and Otaki—" he started.

"Oh, sure, blame it on somebody else." she said disdainfully.

Belldandy slid his door open, and guided him inside. She turned to go, stopped for a few seconds, then started to slide the door shut.

Skuld could hardly believe her eyes. "Onee-chan, what are you doing?"

Belldandy regarded her coolly, one hand on the panel. "I'm going to sleep with Keiichi tonight."

"**_What?!_**" Skuld glared past her to where the mortal in question looked much like a raccoon caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. All of her unease and frustration came pouring out. "What did you do to make Belldandy sleep with you I know you're going to do nasty things to my sister you perv—"

**"SHUT UP, SKULD!"**

Skuld froze in mid-complaint with her jaw hanging open. Belldandy might be rejecting her magic, and the very idea of magic, but she was still a Goddess First Class, Unlimited. She still had her Command Voice, and used it without thinking.

In her normal voice she said coldly, "You have made it quite clear how _you_ feel. Have you ever thought about how _I_ feel? Does that even matter to you? My Keiichi is a kind, good, honest, caring man and I love him very much, and he loves me. I'm happy when I'm with him, and…less happy, when I'm not. He's too considerate to say anything, but _I_ can tell how much your incessant carping hurts him. Seeing you treat him so cruelly hurts _me_ even more, but did that ever occur to _you?_ Do you even care? He will probably be your brother-in-law some day, and if you continue to treat _my husband_ so shamefully, you will not be welcome in our house. Good. Night."

She slid the door shut with a loud bang. Skuld stood before it in shock. Her face scrunched up, tears leaked from her eyes, she turned, reached out blindly and the first thing she encountered was Lind, come with inhuman speed to investigate the ruckus. Both arms clamped tight and she buried her face in the senior Valkyrie's bosom, making little strangled noises.

Lind looked down at the weeping Goddess, then up, helplessly. The noise had fetched Urd to her door, as well. She raised her silver eyebrows, pointed to the tea-room, and pantomimed putting her arms around something.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Urd yawned, and opened her eyes. This morning, she lay properly on her futon and pillow, snug under her sheet and blanket, free from any derelict sake bottles. This was definitely a nicer way to wake up. World Of Elegance agreed.

She had knocked off shortly after the disturbance when Keiichi got home, and left some simulations running overnight to narrow down the possibilities for her antidote potion. One had stopped with an error sometime during the night, but the rest were still going. She'd check on them after the breakfast she could smell cooking.

She put on one of her usual dresses, showing off her…_endowments_ to their best advantage. She grinned at the mirror, then stepped out into the hallway. She could hear Belldandy in the kitchen. Skuld and Keiichi were apparently still in their rooms.

Urd yawned again and walked into the kitchen. "Morning, Bell."

"Good morning, Urd," she replied cheerfully, without turning around.

"Want some help?"

"No thanks. I'm used to cooking alone, and having another person moving around in the kitchen would be more of a bother than a help, I'm afraid."

"So, I'd just be in your way?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Belldandy said apologetically.

"I know. I was just kidding." She asked, more seriously, "How are you feeling this morning?"

Belldandy sighed. "A little better. I think I'm getting used to…whatever is going on."

"Ah." She grinned wickedly. "And how was your night with Keiichi?"

"Mmmm…" To her surprise, Belldandy wasn't embarrassed or uncomfortable about the question. "It was wonderful. We didn't have to say anything, or do anything, we just held each other, and it felt so _right_…"

"So you didn't…?"

"No! This is not the right time. We're going through these…difficulties right now, and Keiichi was a little, um…"

"Drunk."

"Just a little. He fell asleep pretty fast, and…I tucked us in."

"Sounds perfect. For you, anyway." She grinned wickedly again. "Did you show him?"

"This morning." Belldandy turned, with a slightly wicked grin of her own. "I didn't want to sleep with all my clothes on, and when we woke up… Oh, he was shocked! But…_captivated_, too. He kept trying not to stare, even when I told him he was supposed to. I fear I might have gotten just a little assertive. I _did_ make the effort, after all."

"Well, good for you! Good for him, too. And as for Skuld, she needed to be straightened out."

"I was terribly harsh with her," she said regretfully. "I'll have to apologize—"

"No, I'll talk to Skuld. You finally told her what she needed to hear. I thought you should have yanked her chain a long time ago, instead of letting her go on and on like that. Maybe now she'll grow up a little."

"Do you really think…?"

"Yes. I need to talk to her first," she insisted. "She's hurt and confused, and you feel guilty. Left to yourselves, you'll just go back to your old habits."

"You…could be right."

"Course I'm right!" she declared, grinning. "I'm your Big Sister. It's my job to be right, and straighten you Little Sisters out when you need it."

Belldandy lifted the lid off a pot, sniffed the steam delicately, and replaced it, satisfied. "All right. I'll leave it to you, then."

Urd stopped at Belldandy's door first, rapped on the panel, opened it and stuck her head inside. "First call, Sunshine. Breakfast in half an hour."

"Uuuhhhh," Peorth moaned groggily. "_Déjà?_ Feels like I just got to sleep." It was still the middle of the night for her.

"I know, but you won't want to miss Bell's breakfast."

She sighed heavily. "_C'est une proposition déloyale_. But, you're right. I'll make it."

Urd tapped on the doorframe of Skuld's Laboratory, then slid the panel open and stepped inside when she didn't get an answer. A motionless Skuld-sized lump huddled under her blanket.

"Morning, Little Sis," she said cheerfully. The lump did not answer. She sighed, closed the door and took two more steps. "You have to crawl out sometime, and you'll miss breakfast if you stay under there much longer."

"M'not hungry," the lump mumbled.

"If you're going to lie, you should think up better ones. I can hear your stomach growling."

"No you can't. Go 'way."

"Can't do that. You need somebody right now, and Belldandy's busy cooking breakfast."

There was a long silence. "Onee-chan hates me," the lump whimpered miserably.

Urd settled beside the futon and laid a hand on the lump. "No, she doesn't."

"Then why did she yell at me like that?"

"That was just her dumping a couple years' worth of backed-up aggravation on you all at once. She feels guilty about it. She thinks _you_ hate _her_ now."

That got a stronger reaction. "No! I could never hate her."

"Well, she could never hate you either. You just piss her off sometimes." She chuckled. "You piss everybody off sometimes. You piss me off all the time, and I don't hate you."

"No I don't! You're just being mean!"

"_Who_ threw a Skuld Bomb at me yesterday?" She realized her mistake instantly. "Sorry, that was just a joke."

There was another long silence. "No it wasn't," came out reluctantly. "It's kind of mixed up, but I remember the bomb. I…I'm sorry."

"It's okay. No harm done." She patted the lump. "See? I don't hate you, and neither does Belldandy."

"You're always mean to me." the lump said sullenly.

"It's not being mean, I just don't hold things in. Neither do you." She chuckled. "So, we both get a little…agitated, sometimes. But we calm down eventually. And then we fix the house."

The lump was quiet.

"Belldandy is not good at expressing her frustration and aggravation. She thinks it's rude, and unseemly, so she smiles and lets it go, with maybe a little mild comment about what you did being not very nice. I don't think she feels them as strongly as we do, either, but she does feel some, and you've been aggravating her for a long time."

"Because of Morisato."

"You've been interfering in their relationship ever since you got here, and we're all sick of it. Even Bell."

"He's a pervert!" the lump snapped.

Urd slapped it on her best guess at where its rump should be. "No, he's not! He'a a man, a very good man. One of the best I've seen in a long time. Bell loves him, and he's worthy of her. Everybody sees that but you."

"He wants to do pervy things to her," it ground out in a sulky voice.

Urd laughed. "Well, naturally! She's a — a wonderful woman, he's a man, and he loves her. Of _course_ he wants to express his love!"

The lump grumbled something she couldn't make out.

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe Bell _wants_ him to do pervy things with her? And she wants to do pervy things to him?"

The lump bulged, and Skuld's head popped out. "No! She wouldn't!"

"She already has." Urd grinned at her. "Belldandy is no more a virgin than I am." Skuld stared back at her, shocked. "Heh, heh. Didn't want to think about _that_, did you? She's done all that pervy stuff before, quite a few times, and enjoyed it a lot." She paused thoughtfully. "Although, I'm pretty sure Keiichi hasn't."

Skuld just stared at her.

"So you see, you haven't been 'protecting' her from anything. You've just been interfering in matters that are none of your business. It's way past time she set you straight." She stopped, then added, "I'll admit, you didn't deserve to get the whole load thrown on you all at once, but that's because she's been holding it in for so long."

Skuld kept staring, unable to argue, but still unwilling to accept.

"You have to trust your big sister to make her own decisions, and do what's right for _her_, whether it's what _you_ want her to do or not, and keep your nose out of her private life. And get out of bed, and come to breakfast. It'll be ready soon."

"And be nice to Morisato," she said, grouchy and resentful.

"At least stop doing and saying cruel things to him. You heard Bell, that hurts her too. Can you do that, for her?"

There was another unintelligible grumble.

"Great!" she said with a cheerful smile. "We'll see you at breakfast, then." She got up and left the room.

Skuld thought about retreating back under the blanket, then dragged herself out. Urd was right; she couldn't hide from this forever. Might as well face it now. She dug clothes out of her closet, any clothes, and put them on. She put tools in her pockets, but avoided the ones that confused her and made her think of crazy things, eldritch powers, alternate dimensions…

She chased those thoughts away, tried to think about something else, and remembered last night. She and Lind had both been about equally embarrassed when she looked up and discovered who she'd been crying on for half an hour. Neither of them had quite known what to do about it, or say, so they hadn't said anything. They'd exchanged uneasy smiles, and uncomfortable good-nights, and gone their separate ways.

They sat down to breakfast, Belldandy and Keiichi on one side of the table, Skuld on the end to Belldandy's right, Peorth on Keiichi's left, and Urd across from them. Peorth looked just a bit…frowzy this morning, as well as tired, but the food seemed to perk her up. Skuld shot occasional dirty looks at Keiichi, but kept her peace otherwise. He snuck a few fascinated glances at Belldandy, until she caught him doing it, smiled and winked at him. He turned red and concentrated on his bowl.

Conversation was sparse. Peorth was feeling time-lagged, Skuld didn't want to talk to Belldandy with Keiichi sitting right there, he was still recovering from his thrilling, but rather disturbing wake-up, and Urd couldn't think of any safe, non-magic, non-Goddess topics that wouldn't set _somebody_ off.

As they were finishing, Urd stood up. "Keiichi. Got a minute?"

"Uh, sure," he said, puzzled.

She led him into the hallway. "Give Bell and Skuld a while alone, okay? They need to work out their…disagreement, from last night."

"Oh. I guess, you're right."

"Good." She gave him an appropriately devilish grin. "So, Bell gave you a little show this morning, did she?"

"Urd!" He turned red again. "That's— wait a minute, how did you know?"

She grinned wider. "Who do you think talked her into it? Although, she bought that…_outfit_, on her own. Mostly." She enjoyed his tongue-tied embarrassment a little longer. "Did you enjoy the show?" He grimaced, and turned even redder. "I'll take that as a yes." She leaned closer and murmured conspiratorially, "She's got more of those…_outfits_, too. If you're good, she might show you…_more_." He was already as red as he could get, it would seem.

Teasing Keiichi was a lot of fun, but she had work to do. "Is there something you can do in your room for an hour or so?"

"There's ho-homework," he stammered.

She nodded. "Good. Finish that off, then go be with Belldandy. You need each other, but Skuld needs her sister, too." She chuckled. "You'll have to take turns."

Peorth was close enough to hear the last few words. "Take turns at what?"

"Not what you're thinking, I'm sure," Urd teased her.

Instead of replying to the banter, she yawned. "I'm going back to bed. No sense adjusting to your schedule just for a day or two."

Urd nodded. "Right. I should have some preliminary results by the time you get up again."

They stepped into their respective rooms and closed the doors almost in unison.

Belldandy carried a stack of plates and bowls into the kitchen. "Thank you for helping me clean up."

"No problem," Skuld replied, not meeting her eyes.

"How are you feeling this morning?" she asked cautiously.

"Okay, I guess." she said sullenly.

_This is not going well_, Belldandy thought as she set a pot of leftovers in the refrigerator. The uncomfortable silence stretched on, and on, as they passed each other several times. She sighed. _I'll have to take the first step._

She waited until her sister set one of the last dishes beside the sink. "Skuld?"

The girl turned and looked at her, with no expression at all.

Oh, this was definitely not going to be easy. "I'm sorry I said such harsh things to you last night. I shouldn't have been so, so…"

"Mean."

"Well…unkind, anyway. I should have found a better way to tell you."

"Tell me what? To let Morisato do pervy things to you, and not care?"

"Oh, Skuld…" Belldandy looked at her stubborn, resentful expression and sighed again. "When two people love each other, what they do together is not 'pervy' and it's nobody else's business."

Skuld's expression did not change, nor did she say anything.

"I know Mother has explained these things to you. Just like she explained them to me, a long time ago."

"Yeah." Her expression did change, now. It got worse. "Ewwwww."

Belldandy laughed, a little. "When you get a little older, you'll change your mind. Or, rather, you'll find that your mind has changed all on its own. You'll feel…differently."

Still that stubborn rejection, and again no reply.

"It _will_ happen," she said conclusively. "It happened to Urd, and it happened to me. It has happened to most women, throughout all of Time. If it hadn't, none of us would be here. I'm _sure_ Mother told you _that!_"

Now her expression changed again, and she made an uncomfortable little noise. Belldandy could guess what she must be thinking about.

"I know you resent Keiichi. You've made that clear since the first time you saw us together. You resent his love for me, and my love for him, and that's not fair, to him, or to me."

She looked troubled, but still stubborn.

"Please, Skuld. Don't force me to choose between the man I love, and the sister I love. That would be more than I could bear."

Skuld looked up at her, shocked. No one had ever put the issue to her in those stark terms before. She shook her head, protesting, "No, that's not…" but she couldn't come up with anything more.

Belldandy returned for the last dishes on the table, letting her work through that herself. Both sisters were quiet for several minutes. Belldandy washed dishes while Skuld rinsed and set them to dry.

"Onee-chan, I didn't mean to…I…I only wanted…"

"You want it to be just you, and me, like when we were children," Belldandy finished for her. "Those were good times, weren't they? I have fond memories, as well." She turned more serious. "But we're not children any more. I've grown up, and you're growing up, too. No one can make time stand still, or turn back. We all move onward, and we all have to accept that. We can't live in the past, and I don't want to."

Several dishes later Skuld asked, half-resentful, half-fearful, "Do you love him more than me?"

"You're still trying to make me choose," Belldandy rebuked her gently. "It's not a matter of how _much_ I love you. I love Keiichi in a different way, a way that doesn't affect how I love you. He accepts that. He's not taking me away from you, and he doesn't want to. He could be a true brother to you, if you'd give him a chance."

They had almost finished the dishes when Skuld said, "I'll think about it, Onee-chan. I'll think about everything you said."

"Good." Belldandy gave her sister a rather penetrating look. "You should never take any action without thinking about it."

After they finished cleaning up the kitchen, Skuld returned to her room. There was something she wanted to do. and she'd thought it over quite carefully. During breakfast, something Jadwel told her yesterday had come back to her. She might not remember everything about her latest invention, but she could still use a computer, and that love hotel must have security cameras in the lobby…

* * *

Belldandy knocked on the doorframe. "Keiichi?"

"Come in!" he answered instantly.

She opened the door to find him sitting in front of a desk loaded with books and papers, gazing up at her with a smile.

"Almost done."

She returned his smile. "When you're finished, would you like to—"

"Sure!"

"You didn't even hear what it was."

"It doesn't matter," he assured her. "Whatever you want, the answer is yes. Always."

"Oh, Keiichi." She stepped up behind him and squeezed his shoulders. "I think this…_trouble_, would be unbearable without you. I am truly thankful to have you in my life."

He craned his neck and looked up at her. "I'm thankful to have you in my life, too, Belldandy. I think I can face anything, if you're with me."

She squeezed again. "I feel the same. Can I help you face that homework?"

He chuckled. "Sure thing. Let me see, if clearance is zero-point-two millimeters…" His pencil scratched away for a few more minutes, he went back over the paper, making one last check, and closed his book. "There, all done." He stretched and flexed his fingers. "What have I agreed to, by the way?"

"Just a walk around the yard," she said placidly. "I think I need to see the sky, feel the sun and wind…"

He stood and turned to the door. "Sounds nice."

Belldandy took his arm and they walked out the back door. She allowed her feet to take her where they would, along the wall, around the pond, under the trees. She stopped in a secluded place behind the temple and had a sudden urge to sing. Keiichi understood not a word of it, but stood entranced as the sun seemed to shine brighter, the sky glow bluer, the grass turn greener, the birds twitter more cheerfully.

She let the last note fade away and turned to him, the most beautiful vision he had ever beheld. Their arms went around each other and her kiss filled him like her song. He never wanted it to end.

A twig snapped.

They both turned reluctantly, to see Lind glide around the temple corner, making her rounds. She dipped her head slightly, acknowledging their presence, and passed by. They suddenly noticed that they were standing in the middle of a large, waist-high patch of flowers which hadn't been there a few minutes ago. And _why_ was Belldandy so certain Lind had stepped on that twig deliberately?

No matter. Their moment was ended. Keiichi offered his arm, Belldandy took it, and they waded out of the sweet-smelling flower patch. Neither of them wanted to think about where it had come from. They meandered around the temple grounds for a while longer and wound up sitting on the temple's front steps.

Urd found them there a few minutes later. "Could I get a blood sample from each of you?"

They looked at each other, then agreed. Keiichi held his arm out.

Urd smiled. "No, I only need a few drops. A finger stick will be enough."

He held his hand up. She poked his index finger with a tiny blade, held a small glass tube over the spot and squeezed out several drops of blood, which wicked up into the tube. She did the same with Belldandy, then smiled again at both of them.

"All done. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Keiichi shook his head. Belldandy asked, "What about Skuld? Have you seen her?"

Urd chuckled. "She's back to being Skuld. So busy with something on her computer she barely noticed."

Belldandy said, "Oh."

At the same time, Keiichi said, "That's good, isn't it?"

"Better, anyway. I practically had to drag her to breakfast." She asked, more seriously, "How are you two holding up?"

Belldandy sighed. "Everything feels so confused. I feel like, I don't know what's going on at all." She leaned against Keiichi. "What other troubles will we have, I wonder, before all this is over?"

Urd looked around nervously, with a sinking feeling. "Uhh, Bell…"

They watched as Lind and two other Valkyries took up positions beside the house, facing the outer wall, clearly preparing for _something_. Urd could feel their heightened state of alert.

"…I think we should go in the house. Looks like something's happening."

Keiichi sat on Belldandy's right, between her and whatever had the Valkyries' attention. He turned that way, looking for threats, keeping her behind him. "What is it?"

Urd didn't sense anything, but she trusted the Valkyries to know their business. Something was coming. Although it was unlikely to pose any physical danger, the risk that her sister and the mortal would see things they couldn't accept was quite high.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But they're getting ready for an attack. No sense sitting out here, being targets."

That convinced Keiichi. He stood up, tugging on Belldandy's hand. "I think she's right. Let's get inside, and let the soldiers deal with…whatever it is."

She was still reluctant, but she couldn't deny both her sister and her boyfriend. She stood up, and they all headed for the house. Belldandy tried to get ahead of Keiichi, but he stubbornly stayed between her and the Valkyries, clearly more concerned with her safety than his own. Urd smiled to herself. Even in her current condition, Belldandy was far more capable of protecting Keiichi than the reverse, but she couldn't fault his intentions.

"I think you should both stay in Keiichi's room until this is over," she advised them. "It's the farthest one from where this is going down. I have to get back to work."

She watched until they shut Keiichi's door, then shut her own, sat at the workbench, and laid two thin glass tubes filled with blood beside a third one. They _looked_ like glass tubes, anyway.

She had spent more than an hour creating these, plus a spare. Disguised as simple Midgard glass, the intricate spell-powered devices were already running a sophisticated magical analysis on the blood of two Goddesses and a mortal, and the altered potion in each. She linked them to her best approximation of an antidote formula, and waited for the results.

She considered the situation for a few more seconds, then cast a strong shield spell around the house, careful not to interfere with the Valkyries. Probably a waste of effort, but she wanted to keep her sisters and Keiichi _safe_. A little extra insurance couldn't hurt.

* * *

Gunnr felt one of their tripwire spells activate. She pulled out her communicator and keyed the squad channel. "Alert, alert, we've got incoming. Demonic, Level Seven, vector Epsilon-Five, ETA two minutes."

Level Seven made it a mid-grade Demon First Class, a moderate threat, but they were four Valkyries, with a prepared defense, and now they knew it was coming. They moved with practiced precision, and not a word. Gunnr faced the approaching demon, Lind and Kara took flanking positions, while Jadwel watched the rest of the perimeter for other threats. This could be a diversion. They all blanked out their celestial energy signatures as far as they could, concealing their full power. The demon might underestimate them.

Gunnr felt well capable of handling this demon on her own; she was a strong Level Seven herself, and a long-time veteran. Kara and Jadwel were both Level Fives, both good fighters. Lind was a Level Eight, and fanatical about her training and practice. She would move in if the demon gave Gunnr any great difficulty.

On Gunnr's left, Lind considered their other assets. Peorth was a Level Seven, but mostly an administrator, not trained or accustomed to combat. Belldandy…if she were not incapacitated by that demonic potion, she'd be a powerful Level Eight, nearly a Level Nine, and she _had_ a Valkyrie license. She could kick this demon's ass in a straight-up fight.

Skuld had neglected her magic training, placing her at no more than Level Two, but she was a rarity — a true Technomancer. She infused her technological creations with more magic than she could wield directly. If she got serious about developing her magic, she would rival the ancient Technomancers who'd created Mjollnir, Gungnir, Yggdrasil's core systems, the Gates, the Valkyries' weapons, and the entire race of angels. Starting with the modern age's more advanced technology…there was no telling what she could achieve.

Urd was a real wild card. The Aesir heritage of her father, and her grandfather Wotan, combined with Hild's impossible power, whatever its unknown source, gave her unimaginable potential. There had been considerable opposition to allowing her even to take the Goddess First Class tests, and great relief when she had forfeited half-way through. If she got into this fight, they'd be very concerned about collateral damage, and drawing the attention of mortals. Best she go back to her room and concentrate on brewing her potions.

To her relief, the three got up and retreated to the house, and then she felt someone put up a shield. Urd, for certain. She nodded approval; a little extra protection around the people they guarded was a wise precaution. She refocused her attention on the perimeter, and they prepared to receive their uninvited visitor.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Mara was in a state. Yesterday she'd sent one of her mini-avatars to squat in a tree near the Tariki Hongan Temple's outer wall and watch those pesky celestials pack up and go home. She'd prepared snacks, laid in a big cooler full of beer, and settled in for the show.

A day later she was still waiting for the curtain to rise. The snacks and beer were long gone, she was bored, tired, cranky and hung over, and those idiots hadn't left **YET**. What were they waiting for? The only thing keeping them there had been that mortal Morisato's wish, and she'd taken care of _that_. Being surrounded by three unearthly creatures he couldn't believe in would have to give him a terminal case of the willies, wouldn't it? His only wish would be to get rid of them!

But, for some reason, they remained at the temple. She'd seen their Gate activate, popped a fresh beer to celebrate her triumph, then fallen back, stunned, when it closed and the temple was still full of celestial presences. All their barriers and masking spells had remained, too. A few hours later that Belldandy, the most irritating one of them all, had scurried out the temple gate — not the Gate — with two _shopping bags!_

Forty minutes after that two _more_ celestials she'd never seen before had gone in the same direction. That Gate must have brought them. Instead of ridding her of the existing infestation, the blessed thing was making it _worse!_

Next, she had seen two mortals she'd recognized stop by and take Morisato somewhere with them. She found that pair mildly amusing; they looked a bit like demons themselves, and made most other mortals quite uncomfortable. Morisato didn't seem to be fleeing from the celestials, though. What was going on?

Later, she saw a familiar car drive up and stop. She'd had some marginally profitable dealings with Sayoko Mishima in the past, but this time she'd brought Belldandy and the red-haired celestial _back to the temple!_ And then drove away, leaving them to go inside. The brunette celestial returned shortly thereafter, and then nothing happened for a long time.

The Celestial Gate activated, she sat forward, hoping, hoping…

And it deposited **YET ANOTHER** celestial in front of the temple compound! Peorth, that was the one, a brunette almost as annoying as Belldandy. She went inside, and stayed. After a long time, lights started going out, one by one.

The strange conveyance that had taken Morisato away returned him in a rather poorer condition. Belldandy hustled out and helped him inside. Ten minutes later, more lights went out. According to her avatar, nothing more happened all night long except a couple of insomniacs wandering randomly about the grounds. Her main self hadn't slept all that well, either. Looking through her avatar's eyes again, the temple compound appeared unchanged.

What could have gone wrong with her cunning plan? It was perfect! It was foolproof! Split _that goddess_ and _that mortal_ apart, send them all packing, and rack up one long-overdue win for Mara, Demoness First Class, Limited. Maybe even get that changed back to Unlimited, if Hild-sama felt generous — and she just might. This intolerable situation had been galling Her Infernal Majesty for a long time, too.

They _must_ have drunk the tea. She'd felt her little spell inside the tea-box expire when it was opened, and why else would they open it? What could they do with tea besides brew it, and drink it? Maybe Morisato didn't drink any? But why? The few times she'd seen them having tea, he'd sat beside _her_, drinking right along with them. Nothing made any sense!

Well, there was no help for it. Her avatar was — heh, heh — too _limited_ to provide her with any more intel. She'd have to go take a look for herself. She climbed out of her red leather recliner — mortals threw away so _many_ things that could be made perfectly serviceable with a bit of magic — banished most of her hangover with a demonic spell, and set off for the outskirts of Nekomi.

The temple compound looked just as she'd seen it through her avatar's eyes. She approached warily, with her energy blanked out; there were at least five celestials in there, plus Urd, who would probably side with them, plus that little brat's infuriating robot. Her backside twinged with the memory of a particularly ill-aimed missile…

She settled in the same tree, two branches below her avatar. Something nagged at her, some tiny stimulus below the threshold of sensation. She tried to focus on it, but it was like trying to grab smoke.

"_It's Mara. She's just sitting there_," Lind had Spear Mint relay to the others' angels. Subtle cloaking spells now masked them from anything short of a determined scan of their exact location, and the demoness clearly didn't know they were there. "_Well concealed, too. Those enhanced tripwire spells were definitely worth developing_."

"_Only the one_," she got back from Jadwel, still scanning outward, avoiding the demon.

"_What the Hell is she doing?_" Gunnr grumble-thought, echoing what they all were wondering.

"_Does it matter?_" Lind posed her next question as an exercise for her troops. _"What are **we** doing?"_

"_Catching us a demon_," Gunnr responded instantly.

_"How?"_

She thought for a few seconds. _"I blast her out of the tree, Kara snaps her up with a trap spell."_

_"Anything else?"_

_"You stand ready for an attack, Commander, just in case."_

_"Anything else?"_

This time there was a much longer pause, then a firm _"No. Let's keep it simple. Less to go wrong."_

_"Very well. When you're ready."_

_"We go when Jadwel opens the barrier,"_ Gunnr concluded.

Several things happened then, very fast.

Even the best cloaking spell can't shroud a Valkyrie powering up for an attack. Just before the barrier opened, Mara found out what she'd been almost-sensing as figures in those all-too-familiar white and blue combat uniforms blurred into view not fifteen yards away.

A spike of terror shot straight up her spine. _Valkyries! **Three** Valkyries! Oh, Hell, no, **FOUR** Valkyries! **THIS** is what their Gate brought? And **LIND?!** I'm in it now, soooo deep…_

She was still turning to fly away when Gunnr's Thunderbolt spell caught her in the side and back, blasting her upward, bouncing her off the tree trunk, smashing her straight through a branch thicker than her arm. Those were trifles to a Demon First Class, but the trap spell closing in on her was not. She twisted frantically, seeking any means of escape, and almost smacked face-first into her avatar.

Desperately, she poured a flood of demonic energy into the mini-Mara, grabbed her, flung her into the trap spell, damped down her own energy and flew away at a reckless speed. _Sorry, little gal, but you're more expendable than I am._ She was hit again, then dodged another Thunderbolt before the blonde Valkyrie stopped shooting at her.

* * *

Something outside the house went **KABOOM!**

Belldandy's head jerked around. "What was that?"

"Sounded like a grenade," Keiichi said nervously.

Urd recognized the Thunderbolt spell, a more advanced version of her own Urd Bolts. She recognized Mara's demonic energy, too.

**KABOOM! CRACK!** came from the same direction, then nothing more.

"Was that a rifle?" Keiichi wondered.

_It's over,_ World Of Elegance informed her host. _They caught **something**, but Mara escaped._

Urd growled at the news that Mara got away, but was relieved that nothing worse had happened. She took down her shield spell and returned to her work.

* * *

"An avatar." Lind examined the trap spell's prize closely. "After all that, we caught an _avatar?_"

Gunnr nodded glumly. "She pumped it full of demonic energy, damped out her own, and the trap spell went for the most obvious target. We— _I_, didn't notice the avatar. Sorry, Commander. No excuse."

"But where did it _come_ from?" Kara asked plaintively. "She didn't split it off here; we'd have noticed. I'm sure she didn't bring it with her, either. It must have already been here, watching us, but how did it get past the tripwire spells?"

"Maybe those new, improved spells need some more improving," Gunnr said darkly.

"No…" Lind mused. "I know the specs, and they would have picked up this avatar, even without the extra energy." She pondered a while longer. "It must have been there before you laid the spells. Before we arrived, even. Not moving, not _doing_ anything, just watching…it wouldn't have set them off. Fractions like this are hard as Hell to find, if they don't call attention to themselves."

"So what do we do with it?" Gunnr asked. "Snuff it?" She was still miffed about being fooled, it would seem. She'd been on point, directing the exercise, and this had to be considered a failure. She considered it _her_ failure, whether Lind did or not.

"No, I think that would be premature," Lind decided. "We've got it trapped, and cut off from its host, so we can take our time deciding what to do with it. For now, we keep it in stasis and go back to our normal routine. You have the watch, Jadwel is on standby, and Kara probably wants to get back to her bedroll."

"Affirmative on the bedroll, Ma'am," Kara said, then turned and walked toward the temple. She'd been up all night, and only got a few hours sleep before this alert yanked her out of bed.

Lind followed. A little sack time sounded good. Valkyries were trained to deal with extreme sleep deprivation, but that didn't mean they'd be at their best. A good soldier sleeps when she needs to. She'd store their puny prisoner in the temple for now.

* * *

Peorth opened the door to Belldandy's room and looked out. "_Bonjour?_" The empty hallway did not reply.

She'd been awakened by thunder, or something like it, and decided she might as well get up. She looked at the other closed doors, and knocked on one. "Urd?"

"Peorth? Come on in."

She slid the panel open and stepped inside. Urd sat at her workbench again, working over another matrix of runes. "Almost there," she said without looking away.

"Did I hear _tonnerre?_"

"Mara turned up," Urd informed her. "The Valkyries tried to catch her but, she got away, dammit."

"Ah." Peorth watched for several minutes, fascinated. She was an accomplished programmer, and considered herself quite good with spells and potions, but she admitted to herself that the elder Norn's work on this antidote was just a bit beyond her.

Urd went over her spell matrix one last time, then leaned back. "That should do it. Cross-check?"

"_Oui_." Checking Urd's calculations took some time, and Peorth was impressed again with the complexity, and the thoroughness of her work. Well, she _would_ do her best for her sisters.

"I see nothing amiss," she said at last. "Do you have all the ingredients?"

"I framed these functions around what I've got on hand, so, yes." She heaved a huge sigh. "I need a _drink_."

_"Ce ne serait pas sage—"_

"I _know_ that. Doesn't mean I don't still want one." She sighed again. "Making the potions, and matching them to each patient, will take a few more hours. Maybe, suppertime?"

Peorth looked the formulae over once more. "I don't see where my help could make it go any faster."

Urd shook her head. "No, this is one of those situations where getting two women pregnant won't produce a baby in half the time."

The Rose Goddess laughed. "That's one way to put it. I'll go see Bell, then."

"Be careful what you say in front of her."

_"Oui, oui, je sais."_ She left and shut the door. Keiichi's room was just a couple of steps away, and she knocked. "Bell?"

There was a short delay, then, "Come in, Peorth."

She opened the door. Belldandy and Keiichi sat close together, a little embarrassed, flustered…like she'd almost caught them making out? She stifled a giggle. "_Bonjour_. Sorry I was so tired at breakfast, but this is barely morning for me."

"That's all right. We've been a little out of it, too. And that business a while ago…"

"Urd told me that was Mara. The Valk— uh, the soldiers, almost caught her, but she got away. I don't think she'll be back, with them watching."

"Good," Keiichi said, relieved.

"And what have you two been doing since then?" she asked suggestively. "The crisis ended some time ago, did it not? Or did you notice?"

They both turned red and Belldandy protested, "Peorth…"

She laughed. "I'm just glad to see you're getting along so well."

The two calmed down slowly, and Belldandy said, "Somehow, this…trouble, seems to have brought us closer together. Isn't that strange?"

The Rose Goddess had a pretty good idea why, and it wasn't entirely a result of her love-spell. Belldandy's perspective had changed; she could no longer believe she was a powerful Goddess who _knew_ she had all of eternity ahead of her. Now she felt like a mortal woman, in love with a mortal man, and behaved accordingly. Keiichi would be more than happy to respond to her altered attitude.

She couldn't tell them that, so she just said, "Shared troubles can strengthen a relationship, if it's sound to begin with. It would seem that yours is."

They both smiled at her, and couldn't think of anything to say.

She gave them her good news. "Your sister is working on the antidote. She says it could be ready by suppertime."

They looked relieved, and Belldandy said, "Oh, good. It will be nice to get these _troubles_ put down."

"So, what will you do in the meantime?" she asked provocatively.

Keiichi was embarrassed again, but Belldandy looked faintly puzzled and told them, "Actually, I…I feel like I need to take a bath."

Peorth understood immediately. She needed to purify herself, and renew her connection to Yggdrasil. Yesterday's events must have made her skip her cleansing, or forget. "Then don't let us keep you. I'll be outside when you're done." She stood up.

Belldandy said uncertainly, "Keiichi, I…"

"No, you go ahead," he encouraged her. "I'll see you in a little while."

She smiled, gave him a quick kiss, followed Peorth out and headed for the bathroom.

Peorth drifted through the house and out the front door, unsure what to do for the moment. She walked around the temple grounds, passed Gunnr, still making her rounds, and found a patch of flowers, quite out of place, with strong traces of magic on them. She chuckled. Belldandy had once told her what happened on the rare occasions when she and Keiichi kissed. Not believing in magic must not have changed that reaction.

The setting was serene, the flowers were lovely, and there were even roses. She spent a pleasant time just soaking in the ambience before moving on, winding up in front of the house again after a while. Skuld had come out of her room and now sat in one of the porch chairs, chatting conspiratorially with a red-haired Valkyrie. They wore matching, and unpleasant, grins.

She was standing beside the structure holding the temple bell when the house door opened, Keiichi stepped out, sighted her, and stopped. He looked around, seemed to gather his resolve, and walked over to her.

"Uh, Peorth?" He seemed uncertain what to say next.

_"Oui?"_

"Could I, uh, talk to you, for a minute?" he inquired, keeping his voice low.

"_Certainement_. Something troubles you, _Monsieur_ Morisato?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. "It's, uh, it's, kind of, um, tough to talk about…"

She smiled, not unkindly. "You seem to find it _très embarrassant_, but how can I help if you cannot say what it is?"

"It's, uh…" He stumbled to a halt again.

"Perhaps you should talk to Belldandy, when she finishes her bath?"

"No!" he exclaimed, still low, and a little panicked. "I can't tell her this! Or Urd, either. It's…" He looked around nervously, then stepped closer, stretched up and whispered in her ear at some length.

Her expression went from amusement to surprise to dismay. "_Ooooh, Monsieur_ Morisato! _C'est dommage!_ Of course I will help!"

"I just don't…I don't understand _why_…"

"Nor do I. You say it has only happened this morning?"

"Well…this is the first time I noticed, but we were…were never in that situation before."

"You do find her attractive, _oui?_"

"Yes, of course! She's the most beautiful woman in the whole world!" He stopped and looked guilty. "Uh, I mean…"

Peorth gave him a fond smile. "_Je vois ce que tu veux dire_. She _is_ the most beautiful, because you love her."

"Uh, yeah, that's right." His shoulders slumped and he mumbled, "But then, why didn't I…feel…that way?"

"You have felt _that way_ before, _oui?_"

He turned red and muttered, "Yeah."

"So the problem must have emerged recently," she mused.

He nodded slowly.

"That can happen to a man, when he is worried, or tired, or under a great deal of stress. These two days have been _très difficile_ for you, have they not? Perhaps that is the reason."

"Well…maybe. But, now I think about it, maybe it's been happening for a while. Maybe that's _why_ we've never been in that situation before. I just don't know!"

"I see why you are concerned, and why you couldn't speak of this to Belldandy, or Urd." She added, thoughtfully, "Possibly, your sister?"

"Ack! No!" He looked panicked again.

"I suppose not. She lacks experience, and would see only humor."

"That's for sure. She'd never let me forget it."

"Hmmm. The more I think about this, the more I think there _is_ something wrong. Not with you, or with Belldandy, but…something. Would you tell me, again, exactly what happened this morning? Everything. You never know what small detail might be important."

He looked around, then whispered in her ear again. After a minute she said, "Really? So daring!"

He went on; she nodded, smiled, and giggled a couple of times.

"Oh my, she did _that?_"

A minute later Keiichi suddenly stopped, grew red and turned away. Peorth tried to turn him back towards her. "Don't stop now, you're just getting to the best part!"

He shook his head and tried to pull away, but she would not let go. "Whatever is the matter?" she asked, tugging until he lost his balance and fell against her, and she noticed something.

He squirmed and protested as she reached down and felt carefully, to make sure. "Why, Keiichi! You're all better! I knew I was good, but this is _much_ sooner than I expected. Come on, lover-boy, won't you thank Love Doctor Peorth with a little kiss?"

Keiichi was still trying to escape from her playful clutches when Belldandy opened the front door, spotted them, and froze.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Skuld was just asking Jadwel, "So, what _else_ is going to happen around here?"

No one noticed as Belldandy's eyes went blank. They _did_ notice the wind picking up, swirling around, gaining speed, and force. Within seconds it became a howling vortex which buffeted Keiichi aside and constricted around Peorth. She struggled and cried out but, taken by surprise, failed to muster any effective defense. She was pulled off the ground, spun around, disoriented, dragged through the air and flung into the temple pond with a huge splash. The mini-tornado whirled aimlessly for a few more seconds before it dissipated.

They all gathered beside the pond as Peorth arose from the water like a bedraggled Venus, spluttering lurid curses in French. She waded to the shore, and Jadwel helped her climb out. By this time Urd had opened the front door, spotted the group, and headed their way.

Belldandy was looking normal again, if a little bewildered. She put her arm around Keiichi. "What happened? Why was Peorth in the pond?"

_"C'était un de tes orages de jalousie!"_ Peorth snapped, extremely put out. Pond water dribbled from her hair down her face and her minimal outfit was soaked.

"Jealousy…storm? Me?" The middle Norn was more confused than ever, and squeezed Keiichi tighter. "That's silly. That would be like…_magic_. We all know there's no such thing."

Peorth opened her mouth to issue a blistering correction. Urd shot her a warning glare and cut her off. "That's right, it was just an accident. She's okay, so let's give her a chance to get inside and dry out. Come on, Peorth, I'll give you a hand."

The Rose Goddess visibly took hold of her temper and said resentfully, "_D'accord_. It was, as you say, an accident." She leaned closer and muttered indignantly, "I thought you said she was rejecting her magic? That did _not_ feel like she was holding back."

"She can't _think_ about magic," was Urd's murmured response. "Those Jealousy Storms come straight out of her subconscious, no thought involved. Both of them can still _use_ magic if they do it by reflex, or without thinking."

Peorth dripped, picked water weeds out of her hair, and looked at the elder Norn beseechingly. "How much more of this must we endure? When will that antidote be ready? What madness will accost us next?"

She had barely finished speaking when they heard something putter up the road and stop in front of the temple gate. Urd shook her head in resignation as Fate proceeded to answer Peorth's question. A minute later she felt Gunnr open the barrier to admit a short mortal woman wearing a brown leather jacket and big round glasses, who stomped angrily up the steps, peered around and zeroed in on Jadwel.

The woman marched over to the Valkyrie and glared up at her, fists on hips. "You! Who are you? What did you do to Toshiyuki, you bully?"

Jadwel looked down, nonplussed, much the way a tiger might regard a belligerent mouse. "I gave him a ration of shit for treating me the way he treats all women. He deserved it."

"No he didn't! He's not like that, you, you…" She ran out of words, too agitated to go on.

Peorth, Urd and Skuld looked on with various expressions of amusement. Belldandy looked sympathetic, as usual.

Jadwel glanced around, still at a loss. "Who is this small woman with the big attitude?"

"She's Sora Hasegawa, from the Motor Club," Keiichi informed her. "Sora, what's wrong? Why are you yelling at her?"

"She tried to kill Toshiyuki!" Sora was still glaring furiously up at Jadwel.

Jadwel shook her head. "No, I didn't. I must admit it was a great temptation, but if I made any effort to kill that insolent little wretch, he'd _be_ dead. It required a great deal of restraint to _not_ kill him."

"You set his car on fire!" she accused the Valkyrie. "With him inside! He almost got burnt to a crisp!"

That indictment was, unfortunately, true, but the _how_ of it could not be disclosed to an uninitiated mortal, or the two Goddesses still under the potion's influence.

"Why do you believe _I_ set it on fire? How could I have done so without even touching it?" Those two questions weren't lies. They weren't the truth, either, and they were misleading, but sometimes circumstances made such expedients necessary.

"You— you were there! You were yelling insults at him!" Sora was getting more flustered, and now a little unsure of herself.

"A number of people were there, and insults won't set a car on fire," Jadwel said reasonably.

Sora seemed to deflate slightly, and dropped her gaze. "You were mean to him," she said resentfully.

"He was a lot more than mean to me first," she replied, still reasonable.

"How did you hear about this?" Belldandy asked.

"It's all over the internet," Sora complained. "Somebody posted a video and _everybody's_ watching it, and sharing it. They'll all think he's a horrible person…"

Skuld made a sinister snicker and looked mysterious.

"Well, good," Jadwel said with satisfaction. "He _is_ a horrible person. Maybe now a few women will take the warning, and not get hurt."

"_He's_ not horrible, _you_ are!" Sora protested, but with a certain lack of conviction.

"Now, Sora," Belldandy said graciously. "You've only seen a part of what happened. Why don't you come sit down, and hear everything, before jumping to conclusions?"

Sora didn't want to sit down and listen; she _wanted_ to punish this domineering woman for humiliating Aoshima, but it was hard to refuse Belldandy's invitation. She wound up sitting on the front steps, glowering sidelong at the Valkyrie, as the others found places to sit nearby. Peorth was still damp, but drying out rapidly with some surreptitious help from magic. Belldandy smiled to herself; getting the woman to sit down would lower her defenses a little, making her more receptive to persuasion. She sat beside Sora, Keiichi sat beside his lady, and she said, "Jadwel, would you tell us all what happened yesterday afternoon?"

"I was in Nekomi, looking for Belldandy-san," she related, falling into Mission Debriefing mode out of habit. "I was not making satisfactory progress. A — man, in a vehicle, offered me a ride. I told him who I was looking for, and he claimed to know her. I foolishly assumed that meant he was her friend, and got in the car. He drove around and around, pretending to search, talking incessantly about himself, asking some very personal questions about Belldandy, and pestering me to 'go out' for dinner, drinks, dancing or other things. There was a lever he used frequently for controlling the vehicle, and he repeatedly 'missed' it and grabbed my leg instead."

"Missing the gearshift was just an accident," Sora asserted stubbornly.

"He had the same 'accident' about forty times," Jadwel said coldly. "Most…_people_, learn after a few mistakes. He kept pulling my skirt up, too."

Sora broke away from her challenging look.

"When I realized he was just driving randomly around the same area, I demanded that he either find Belldandy, or I would find her myself. He told me he'd seen her someplace, I insisted that he take me there, and he drove to that sex emporium. He lied. She was not there."

"That…wasn't entirely a lie," Belldandy said uncomfortably. "He took me there, a long time ago, and tried to…have his way with me. I didn't understand at first, and then I felt…and…I'm not quite sure what happened. It's all kind of confused. Then Keiichi came, and brought me home."

"You never told me that," Sora said. "I don't think you ever told anybody."

"I never wanted to talk about it."

Keiichi squeezed her comfortingly.

"You are correct," the Valkyrie admitted thoughtfully. "He never specified _when_ he'd seen you there. I simply _assumed_ that it was recent, and relevant to finding you. How very clever." Her words were complimentary, but her tone was not.

"He led me into the lobby, walked right past several people waiting in line, and rented a room. For some reason, he believed that I would have sex with him." She paused, and added, "Or, possibly, that if he moved fast enough, I would not have time to refuse. Either way, he was wrong, and I so informed him. At some length."

"I saw that part," Sora said, her resentment back in full force. "You didn't have to be so…so _brutal_. You could have just said no."

"You think that was brutal? A few harsh words?" Jadwel asked forcefully. "You have not the slightest clue what _brutal_ means. I was tempted, more tempted than I like to admit, to accompany Aoshima to that room, and relieve some of my own frustrations, which were _not_ of a sexual nature. _That_ would have gotten brutal. Believe me, he would not have enjoyed the experience _at all_."

Something in her voice, or her eyes, struck fear into Sora Hasegawa in a way she had never experienced before. She shivered and looked away. Keiichi felt it too, and leaned against Belldandy, giving and receiving comfort.

Jadwel took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing calm. When she no longer radiated menace, she continued, "I am a soldier, trained to fight and kill. I _have_ fought and killed, in battles that were brutal beyond your imagining. I pray that you never see the things I've seen, never have to know some of the things I know. And then, while I was occupied with important matters, some insignificant little _boy_ that's spent his entire privileged life refusing to grow up tried to _use_ me to satisfy his infantile lusts. Do you begin to understand how offensive that is to me?"

"But, he didn't know…" Sora said weakly.

"He didn't _want_ to know," she replied caustically. "He didn't give a rat's ass who I am, or what I've done, or how busy I was. All he saw was a woman, and to boys like that, women are just something to stick their peckers in."

Urd snorted with amusement, and Peorth nodded her agreement. Belldandy sighed regretfully. Keiichi and Skuld both looked troubled, though for different reasons.

Sora shook her head. "No, he's not like that, he's _not!_"

"Yes, he is, but for some reason you won't see the truth. Open your eyes, little girl, and walk away from that one. He's got nothing you want."

"You're wrong," she said obstinately.

"She's right," Peorth corrected her. "I've seen…a lot of men like that. Sociopaths, and narcissists, the ones that believe they're _better_ than everybody else, and can't accept other people as equals. They only see people as _things_, to be used, and tossed aside. Like all the women he's used and tossed already."

"But, I can…"

"Change him, you think? _Oui, je sais_," the Rose Goddess said dolefully. "It's an old, sad story, endlessly repeated. You want to believe your love can reach him, redeem him, awaken his humanity, and then he'll return it. A beautiful dream, but that's all it is, because there is nothing in him that can be reached by love. Don't waste your love on the likes of Aoshima. He won't feel your love, won't understand it, can't accept it. If he notices you at all, he won't see you as any different from all the rest. He'll use you and toss you aside, just like all the rest."

Sora turned to Urd. "He never did anything bad to you, did he?"

"Only because I never gave him the chance," she said. "I saw right off what sort of varmint he was, so I didn't have to find out the hard way. Dear Belldandy can be too willing to bestow the benefit of the doubt."

Sora wasn't giving up. "He can change, I _know_ he can!"

"You're sweet, Sora." Belldandy smiled, and the day seemed to brighten. "You're also generous, and kind. You could be right. It might be possible to change Aoshima-san, but…you can't do it."

"Well, then, who can?" Sora demanded.

"Jadwel." She looked at the Valkyrie. "Possibly."

**_"Her?!"_** Sora's glasses flashed as she turned a disbelieving gaze on Jadwel. "You can't be serious!"

Belldandy didn't answer, leaving it to Jadwel, who pursed her lips and mused, "Maybe. It wouldn't be easy." She gave Sora a penetrating look. "And if it were possible, one thing would have to be done first. Before any change can even begin, the Aoshima you know, that arrogant, entitled narcissist, must be broken. You can't do that with kindness and love."

Sora stared back, aghast.

"Think about it. Arrogance, narcissism and money have always _worked_ for him. He gets what he wants without having to make any effort of his own, has never faced any kind of hardship, never had to _try_. And he believes that makes him _better_ than all the people who _have_ overcome trials and adversity, have actually accomplished things. His whole identity is built around a collection of bad habits, and it can't be changed until they've been broken."

"That's why he's so obsessed with Belldandy," Urd explained. "She's the first woman he really wanted who was completely unimpressed by his money and influence. She can't be bullied, bullshitted or bought, which are the only ways he knows to approach a woman. And, she's in love with Keiichi, a man who's got nothing he has, and everything he doesn't. He could never understand what she sees in Keiichi, or why she would choose him."

"You all think he's no good," Sora complained sullenly.

"He's not good for _you_," Peorth told her. "He'd be okay for some shallow gold-digger after his money and social position, but you want love. You won't get it from him. He'll break your heart, and not even notice."

"So what do you want me to do?" she asked, still sullen.

"That's not up to us." Belldandy put a hand on her arm. "All we can do is give you our best advice. Only you can decide what to do with it."

"You can't decide now," Peorth said with a disarming smile. "You're upset, and all this has come at you way too fast. You should never decide these things in haste. Take your time, and think everything over, before you do anything."

"It's almost lunch time," Belldandy observed. "Why don't you join us? Forget about all of this for a while, and just have a friendly visit."

"Friendly?" Sora said dubiously, looking at Jadwel.

"She's already had lunch," Urd informed her quickly. "She and her friends, are, on a different schedule. They just got here, from a…another time zone." Telling her that they were on duty, guarding the temple, would raise far too many other questions.

"Ooooh, jet lag. Maybe that's why she was so out of sorts."

Urd glanced at the Valkyrie with a slight shrug, and she returned it. Might as well let her think that, if it helped.

Belldandy stood up, letting her hand linger on Keiichi's shoulder. "I'll start making lunch. I'll let everyone know when it's ready." She turned, entered the house and shut the door.

"I'm going to take a bath," Peorth grumbled, standing up. "I've got pond slime in my _boots_, thanks to that…that _freak weather event_."

"You sure that's the only place?" Urd joked.

Peorth gave her a haughty look, turned and went inside.

Urd chuckled. "Well, I'd better check on the po— the antidote, see how it's coming along." She followed Peorth into the house, and Keiichi followed her. His homework was done, but he could always study.

Sora looked sourly at Jadwel, then got up and stalked down the walkway and steps, out the front gate, and started tinkering with the minibike she'd ridden to Tariki Hongan. Her mortal senses didn't pick up the barrier, or Gunnr opening it to let her out.

Skuld settled back in her chair. Lunch would be ready soon, and nothing she could think of doing held much appeal.

After a minute Jadwel noticed Banpei, moving along past the temple. "You built that robot, didn't you?"

"Yep. Built, and rebuilt, about a dozen times. I keep thinking of things I can add to it."

"It looked like it was going to attack Mara, until she got out of range."

Skuld nodded. "It's programmed to protect the grounds from intruders, and we've had trouble with Mara before. I'm pretty sure her threat level has been promoted to shoot-on-sight."

"That would be something to see," she said, chuckling.

"Oh, it is! It's chased her off a few times, with the autocannon and missiles." She sighed. "But I have to be reeeeal careful about the targeting parameters. Can't go shooting 'em off indiscriminately over the city. They have to come down somewhere."

Now the Valkyrie chuckled. "Yes, we have a saying: Bombs are one hundred percent accurate — they always hit the ground!"

Skuld laughed with her. She'd never really talked to a soldier before, but she found Jadwel interesting, funny, and…just plain _comfortable_ to talk to. Almost like a big sister, though very different from Belldandy or Urd.

A few minutes later Sigel rounded a corner of the house and walked up to them. "Skuld-sama?"

"What is it?" she asked brusquely.

"Did I do something wrong?" Her face wasn't capable of much expression but she seemed worried, and disturbed.

"Wrong? I don't think so. Are you operating normally?"

"Yes, Skuld-sama. All my systems are functioning within normal parameters." She looked at the ground, then back at her creator. If she were human, any observer would think she was nervous. "Are you mad at me?"

"Mad at—" she shook her head, confused. "Where did that come from?"

"You haven't talked to me in two days. I wondered if…if I did something I wasn't supposed to."

"Not that I know of," Skuld said, still puzzled.

"So, you're not displeased with me?"

"No…"

"Are you too busy? Is there anything I can help you with?" she offered hopefully.

"Uh…no…not right now."

"Oh." Now she seemed disappointed. "Then, I'll go find something to do." She stood there uncertainly.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Skuld said distantly, and watched the robot girl turn and walk away, looking a little lost.

"You built that one, too?" Jadwel inquired.

"Well, not completely," Skuld explained. "It started out as a simple animatronic doll, with a few limited movements and one recorded message. I upgraded it to full mobility, and added some stimulus-response algorithms that do a pretty good job of simulating interactive conversation. A few people have even been fooled into thinking it's self-aware, for a short time anyway. I don't know what's gotten into it today, though. Must be some sort of glitch."

Jadwel doubted that was the whole story. The girl-robot had seemed genuinely troubled by her maker's neglect, concerned about her, anxious to help. In her opinion, that went quite a ways beyond a glitch in her stimulus-response algorithms. She'd heard a few things about the young Technomancer's robots, and her other inventions. Loki himself was said to be impressed by her ability, and watching her with interest. He'd expressed an opinion that some of her creations probably _had_ evolved self-awareness. There'd been rumors, too, that he'd considered snatching one for study, but then considered the likely response from Ansuz, and Tyr, and possibly Belldandy, and turned his attention to other things.

Clearly, the potion prevented her from believing her robots could be any more advanced than current Midgard technology would allow. It was almost painful to see her so constrained, denying more than half of her ability. Maybe, after Urd finished her work, she would get a chance to talk to the real Skuld.

Soon Belldandy called them to lunch. She'd added another table to accommodate their guests, her cooking was as good as ever, but conversation was sparse and strained. Sora was still resentful about Jadwel's treatment of Aoshima, Peorth about her dunking in the pond, Skuld about Belldandy and Keiichi's continued closeness. Urd assured them that her project was progressing well, and would probably be ready by suppertime, or a little after. The news was greeted with relief by everyone except Sora, who didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but shrugged it off as just one more strange thing Morisato's strange friends did and said.

After lunch Belldandy and Keiichi cleared the tables, Peorth followed Urd to go check on the potion, Skuld retreated to her room, and Sora had to return to the Nekomi Tech Motor Club to keep Tamiya and Otaki out of trouble — or at least, try to limit the damage. Peace descended upon the Tariki Hongan Temple, and remained undisturbed for quite a while.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Keiichi opened the front door to find Peorth sitting in a nearby chair on the porch. He took the next one, and spent a short time working out what to say. Even so, his opening words were less than inspired.

"It happened again," he grumbled, then corrected himself. "Or, _didn't_ happen."

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed quietly. "I thought you were…better."

"It _was_ better. Everything was back to normal, but when we were alone it just…"

She waited, but he didn't go on. "Everything seemed fine at lunch," she prodded him.

"I guess I wasn't thinking about it. We were just having lunch together, like always, and then cleaning up."

He stopped again. Peorth considered everything and asked, "And then?"

"We went to my room, and…" He stopped there, deliberately this time. Those were private matters, for him and Belldandy alone. "…and, nothing."

"How about now?"

"I can't stop thinking about her. I want to go, and be with her, but when I do it's like…some of the thoughts, and feelings, just sort of…go away."

It had to be magic, and right now the poor boy couldn't believe in magic. Something like the sort of spell Urd had half-accused her of casting on the honey crock, but…reversed? She found the concept highly offensive, but that didn't mean it wasn't technically feasible. But, why? And, who?

"What will she think?" he interrupted her ruminations. "It's bad enough if there's something wrong with me, but what if she thinks I think there's something wrong with _her?_"

"She—" Peorth stopped there. Knowing Belldandy, she just might think something of the sort. For such a widely admired Goddess, she was a little insecure about her personal appeal. Several times before, she'd thought Keiichi wanted her to leave due to some misunderstanding. Instead. she told him, "If anything like that happens, tell me. I'll…think of something."

Could this be another effect of Mara's potion? Some sort of backup, in case the primary attack failed? No, she thought irritably, neither she nor Urd could have missed such a thing. They'd both seen the full analysis. But then, what could it be? Who would benefit from keeping them apart in this way, and potentially breaking them up completely? Could this be Hild's idea of a joke? Or Velsper, making yet another try at Belldandy? Doubtful, that last, with his powers sealed.

It didn't matter. They had a problem that interfered with their love, and she was a Love Goddess. She would help, in any way she could.

He nodded slowly. "Thanks, Peorth."

A few minutes later they saw Jadwel walk out and meet Gunnr. They talked quietly for a minute, then Jadwel moved towards the perimeter wall and Gunnr headed for the temple.

Jadwel took her turn on watch with a great sense of relief at the normal routine. Lind had rebuked her yesterday for using magic in front of all those mortals. She and Skuld checked this morning, and found that nobody had noticed her casting that spell on Aoshima's vehicle, or, more importantly, recorded video of the event. Reporting those findings to Lind calmed her down, and led her to conclude that there was no reason to pursue the matter further. A formal reprimand would have caused her a great deal of trouble.

She grinned, remembering how good it felt to put that presumptuous mortal in his place. She'd just have to be a little more careful about her impulses.

She kept an eye on the people she was guarding, as well as the surroundings. On her next round, Belldandy was sitting beside Keiichi with her hand over his, talking to him and Peorth. Kara, her backup, sat on the temple steps. Skuld was not in sight, and Urd must still be in her room, working on the antidote potion.

The afternoon dragged on, all of them more or less just waiting for the potion to be finished. Peorth went inside a few times to offer her help. Skuld appeared, and sat beside Belldandy. She at least avoided being overtly hostile to Keiichi.

Peorth returned from her latest foray into the house and informed Belldandy, "Urd requests you not serve supper until she's finished. It shouldn't cause too much of a delay."

"Well…all right," she agreed reluctantly. "I should start cooking pretty soon, though."

Peorth nodded. The wait went on.

"Time to start cooking supper." Belldandy smiled, squeezed Keiichi's hand, stood up and entered the house.

Fifteen minutes later they heard Urd call, "Peorth!" and the Rose Goddess went inside. Keiichi followed a minute later, rather than be left alone with Skuld. He could always study.

Nearly an hour later Peorth opened the front door. "Come inside, Skuld. It's almost ready." She did, and Peorth stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

Urd walked into the tea-room carrying a small tray from the kitchen. On it were three beakers, each holding about fifty milliliters of liquid, each a different shade of pink. She sat at the table, put the tray down in front of her, and set a beaker in front of each patient; Belldandy got the brightest, Keiichi the palest, and Skuld's was exactly the color of strawberry ice cream. They all regarded their 'antidotes' warily.

"Your antidotes are specifically formulated for each of you," Urd informed them. "Don't switch 'em around; they'd be less effective on another person. So…drink up!"

Nobody moved immediately. Belldandy started to reach for hers, then stopped. Keiichi gave her an uncertain smile and picked up his beaker. "It's okay, Bell. I'll go first." Before she could react, or he could have second thoughts, he gulped it down. "Gyaaaak!"

She looked at him, worried. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, and managed to say after a few seconds, "Yeah, I'm okay. It…it's really strong, and it kind of burns. It's starting to taper off now."

Skuld giggled nervously. "At least now we know you're good for _something_. Guinea pig." Urd chuckled. Belldandy didn't really glare, but gave her a very disapproving look. She giggled again. "Hey, somebody had to say it."

Belldandy picked hers up and drank it quickly and without fuss. She squinted slightly, and pursed her lips. "You're right. It's very strong."

Skuld watched both of them as if she expected them to grow tentacles, stealing glances at her own beaker. When nothing alarming happened after a minute, she picked it up and took a cautious sip. "Ewwww!" She made a face and worked her tongue around to dispel the taste.

"You have to drink it all, or it won't work," Urd told her sternly. "There's no such thing as a tenth of a cure. Finish it."

"Did you have to make it so nasty?" she asked plaintively.

"No, I could have made it a lot worse. Now, drink." She grinned evilly. "Or should I hold you down, and have Bell pour it in?"

"You wouldn't dare!" She looked across the table. "And Onee-chan would never…"

Belldandy returned a perfectly bland gaze.

"…or, maybe, she would," Skuld admitted reluctantly. "Can I at least put some sugar in it?"

Urd shook her head. "I wouldn't recommend it. The original drug reacted with the honey you put in the tea. This antidote should be a lot more stable, but why take chances? Just get it over with."

Skuld held up the beaker again. "This had better be worth it," she grumbled. She moved her head back as the beaker approached her face, as if she were trying to get away from it. Finally, it made contact and she drained it. "Uuuwwaauuugh!"

"There, now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" her sister asked cheerfully.

"Bleah! Bleah!" she gagged, making an awful face. "Oooh, it _so_ was! I need ice cream!"

"I would also advise against eating or drinking anything else before the antidote takes effect," Urd cautioned them. "Again, it's as stable as I could make it, but if something did interact with it, I'd have to start all over, spend almost seven hours making another dose, and then you'd have to drink it."

"Yeauucch!" she said resentfully.

"There, I knew you'd understand," Urd said with a chuckle. "Now, it will take a few minutes to work, and there's some variability. Just because Keiichi took it first, doesn't mean he'll be the first one cured. Be patient."

After a minute Skuld grumbled, "I don't feel any different."

"Patience…" Urd repeated.

"What if it doesn't work?" Keiichi asked, worried again.

"It will work," Urd assured them. "I'm very good at this, and Peorth double-checked everything. You should be noticing the effects any minute now."

After another minute Belldandy looked around, almost as if she had just awakened in a strange place. "Oh. Oh, no." She turned to Keiichi "Oh, Keiichi-san. What did I…?"

"Belldandy? What's wrong? What do you…" He too became briefly confused. "Oh…wow. Oh, Bell, I…I remember. I remember it all. I…I wish for a Goddess like you, to be with me always." He smiled, and held her hand. "We're back, Belldandy. We were kind of lost for a while there, but we're back." He looked across the table. "Thank you, Urd. You did great."

"Naturally," she said, grinning. "That just leaves the pipsqueak. How about it, kid? Feeling better?"

"What are you talking about? I feel—" She stopped, and stared. "Ugh. That was… Oooh, that _sucked!_ Oh, that Mara! I'm gonna… I'm gonna upgrade Banpei with long-range missiles and blast her stinking lair right out of the _ground!_ She's dead meat!"

"Nice to have you back, Sis," Urd said, relieved. "You've been even more annoying than usual."

"Why you—"

"Oh no!" Belldandy exclaimed. "Oh, Holy Bell! I'm so sorry! Holy Bell?" She looked at Urd in a panic. "I can't hear Holy Bell! Is she all right?"

"Your angels should be fine," Urd said soothingly. "The potion made you reject them, so they sort of went into hibernation. Now that you're back to normal, they should wake up soon. There shouldn't be any lasting effects."

"Oh, I hope not. Poor Holy Bell…" She blinked at another memory. "And, tell World Of Elegance I'm sorry. I wasn't exactly myself yesterday."

"She understands. She says there is nothing to forgive. The fault is Mara's." Her grin was positively diabolical. "And she's _going_ to pay."

They sat looking back and forth for another minute, just getting used to being themselves again.

Belldandy stood up. "I'll get supper."

Keiichi stood beside her. "I'll help." They both smiled.

Urd collected her beakers. "I'll tell Peorth, and Lind."

Supper was much more relaxed than their last four meals had been. Magic, angels and demons were no longer impossible subjects, so they talked about the effects of Mara's potion and their plans for tomorrow.

After supper, Skuld rushed off to check on Banpei and Sigel. Holy Bell awakened while Belldandy and Keiichi were cleaning up and shared World Of Elegance's view of events, that Mara alone was to blame. She was quite insistent that Belldandy stop apologizing, and feeling guilty. Peorth bid them all a good evening and departed through one of Keiichi's cameras.

Lind decided the Valkyries should remain overnight, and depart in the morning if they encountered no further trouble.

Urd had one more thing to take care of. She found Lind and Gunnr talking in front of the temple. "Lind? Have you got any plans for that avatar you caught?"


	8. Epilog

**Epilog**

"You are just what I need to teach that meddling demon a thing or two."

Urd sat at her workbench, gloating over a two-quart Mason jar with air holes punched in the lid. And an impenetrable shield spell cast over it, of course. What it contained was no butterfly, but a tiny blonde woman in a revealing black-and-red jumpsuit, a short cape, and black high-heeled boots, scowling back at her. A perfect Mara-in-miniature, twenty centimeters tall, right down to her sharp teeth and the red sigils on her cheeks and forehead.

"What do you want to do to Mara?" the doll-like creature demanded. Her voice should have been high and squeaky, but instead it sounded almost normal, just _small_, and kind of thin after echoing off all that glass.

"What do you care? You don't owe her anything. She threw you to the wolves," Urd told her, then chuckled. "Well, to the Valkyries, anyway."

"My mistress made the right decision," the avatar said disdainfully. "If she'd been caught and sealed, I'd fade out in a week. Unless I turned myself in, to be sealed with her." She looked up defiantly. "I am proud to have been of such service to my mistress."

"Oh, are you?" Urd asked with exaggerated sweetness. "Well, now you're going to be of service to _me_."

"I will never betray my mistress!" she snapped vehemently. "You might as well just let me go. I won't help you, and if you keep me cut off from her like this I'll fade out anyway. You'll still have nothing."

"I said you'd be of _service_ to me and you will, whether you want to or not," the Norn decreed, in a voice no longer the least bit sweet. "Besides, all that energy she dumped into you should last for months, if you're careful with it. I might even give you some, if you cooperate."

"Never!"

"Suit yourself. I guess I'll just have to do this the hard way."

The avatar watched, worried, as Urd set to work.


End file.
